President Sarkissian participated at the major international CYBERSEC2020 event on cyber security: dialogue should be held not only among superpowers but should involve others too

President Armen Sarkissian made today opening statement at the major international CYBERSEC-2020 event on cyber security. Among the participants of the event were the President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager, NATO Deputy Secretary Mircea Geoană, Vice Chair of the European Parliament Dita Charanzová, heads of defense agencies from different states and global companies.

Greeting the participants of the meeting, President Sarkissian noted that in the new world it is important not only to work in the area of cyber security but also in data management, ensuring the security of the entire virtual world. “This morning, when I was thinking about these two words, “cyber” and “security”, I thought that it would be appropriate to add another two words “quantum” and “dialogue”, the President of Armenia said. Why quantum? Because we are living in a totally new world. This is a world in which data management companies have become much larger than oil companies. This is a world in which we can call Austria or Argentine from Armenia and hold online discussions, remain connected. We live in a world in which the coronavirus pandemic has become a global crisis while in the past pandemics were coming and going inconspicuously. This is undoubtedly the result of changes that took place in the world.

The world has changed. In the new world the challenges are also new. One of the biggest challenges are, of course, cyber threats. Let’s go back to 2009. I was participating in an event or organization which was created by NATO, US, and Russia. It was called the Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative and was supposed to discuss future challenges, including issues related to cyber security. At the time, threats related to cyber security were not as common as today. I wonder how we were managing cyber security at that time. Could technologies and defense systems become a solution? My conclusion is that in this context the most important word is dialogue. It bring us back to the end of Cold War and Berlin wall, when the leaders with a vision – President Schmidt, Margaret Thatcher, President Reagan, later President Bush were bold enough to start a dialogue with the opposite side.

Dialogue should be conducted not only among superpowers but should be more inclusive, deeper and engage the European Union, United States, Russia. I was glad to hear that President Putin offered to start a dialogue with the US on cyber security but it’s only the beginning of the process because afterwards other major countries should be engaged, then small countries, including minor countries.

All our dialogues should engage multiple parties, creating systems, agreements, restrictions. All this cannot happen if there is no dialogue.

When I think today of cyber security, the bottom-line is the following: welcome to a new world, a world in which data and internet will reign, in which data managing companies are ten times bigger than oil companies.

Welcome to a world which looks unstable and unpredictable, insecure from the viewpoint of cyber security and data management.

Data is the biggest asset the human kind possesses today. Today we face many threats, such as the pandemic, which is a result rather than the cause of the changing world, then climate change, which is a result of human progress. There is no doubt that cyber threats pose the greatest threat. It is time to get serious and think deeply how to fight against cyber attacks and make the world a safer place.

If we don’t change, don’t comprehend all this, we will get more questions than answers.

In order to move forward, it is essential to understand that we have new laws which govern this new world. It’s a complicated world. If we use our sound logic and power of knowledge, we will understand that changes are taking place much faster than they used to. Things will change every day, with new technologies, which are not only useful for people but also increase risks.

The bottomline is: dialogue is essential.”