It was announced by the Deputy of Interior Minister Tetiana Kovalchuk during the conference on human security in the online space "International Conference Safe Online 2020: Modern Challenges".
"Online space has become an integral part of modern life, but there are no set rules for the game. The number of Internet users in the world is about 62%, in Ukraine this indicator exceeds 93%. But together with the progress of technology, new risks emerge every day. Currently, the Ministry of Interior together with the Global Center of Interaction in Cyberspace, is bringing this issue to the level of public policy, introducing new standards of law enforcement and putting people and their safety at the forefront. Our country has become the first country in the region to conduct systematic researches, which form a strategy for neutralizing online threats, "said Tetiana Kovalchuk.
According to the Deputy Minister, the Internet has become one of the risk factors for hybrid warfare. With the beginning of the Russian aggression on the territory of our state, Ukraine receives constant cyber attacks from the enemy.
"As a result of the BlackEnergy virus at the end of 2015, when 6 energy companies were attacked in Western Ukraine, 225,000 Ukrainians in 103 settlements were left without electricity. In 2017, the famous Russian hacker group Fancy Bear attacked using the NotPetya virus. That attack affected computer systems around the world, mostly in Ukraine. In October 2020, the US Department of Justice indicted six officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Russia, members of the so-called SandWorm hacker group, in the preparation and implementation of these cyber attacks against Ukraine and the entire world community," said Tetiana Kovalchuk.
She stressed that the Ukrainian cyberpolice is at the forefront of this front. To ensure systematic work on responding to threats to humans in cyberspace, they their identification has been conducted and a modern classifier of online threats has been created. Experience in creating such a classifier is available only in a few leading countries, including the United Kingdom. The best practices developed by the world community were involved in the creation of the classifier, with a more expanded and structured look that would best correspond to Ukrainian realities and content.
The online threat classifier contains the following cyber threats:
"During 2019-2020, the National Police received almost 900 reports of fraudulent mining, detected more than 600 crimes of Internet fraud, where the amount of material damage amounted to almost 86 million hryvnias. Moreover, the amount of losses in 2020 has doubled, and the number of calls to the cyberpolice hotline has increased 5 times. During this period, police uncovered 445 criminal offenses related to the production and distribution of child pornography. Thanks to their own development, a chatbot, the cadets of KhNUIA managed to block more than 1,700 electronic identifiers in the Telegram messenger, through which drugs were sold, thus preventing the impact on tens of thousands of users,” added Tetiana Kovalchuk.
The first Deputy Head of the Cyberpolice Department Serhii Kropyva, in turn, spoke about current cyber challenges and the activities of the youngest unit of the National Police - cyberpolice: “We direct our activities to ensure that every person who encounters cybercrime receives appropriate assistance from cyberpolice. We position ourselves as an influential agent of cyberspace in the world, so we cooperate with law enforcement agencies of other countries, take a proactive part in international operations. Our key mission is to create the most secure cyber environment possible. ”
According to Serhii Kropyva, last year the cyber police conducted 8 international operations against hackers who committed crimes and caused $ 4 billion in damage.
The human security policy online will strengthen the interaction between cyberpolice and Internet service providers, expand the rights of cyberpolice to block illegal content, allow the use of the latest tools and practices in the prosecution of cybercrime, strengthen responsibility for online crimes. The task of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is to create the necessary conditions for a person to be online.
"Today, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has the institutional capacity and sufficient political will to meet the challenges of the new generation. We are bringing our country into the league of world leaders in information security," the Deputy Interior Minister Tetiana Kovalchuk summed up.
Communication Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
