Right of reply by Representative of the Russian Federation Ms.Irina Tyazhlova at the fourth substantive session of the Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of ICTs 2021-2025
Mr. Chair,
The Russian Federation has to take the floor again in order to respond to a series of unsubstantiated political insinuations on the part of Western delegations, including in the context of the special military operation in Ukraine. It is regretful, but quite expected, that those countries that opposed the creation of the OEWG from the very beginning are now using any pretext to disrupt constructive negotiations, to politicize the work of the Group.
We believe that it is no longer a secret to anyone what drives the methodical attempts of the United States and its allies to “promote” the issue of “Russian hackers”. This is done with the sole purpose of hiding their own destructive actions in information space. Contrary to the aspiration of most UN Member States for the peaceful use of ICTs, NATO countries are, in fact, openly militarizing information space, vigorously building up offensive capabilities, and improving methods of computer attacks. There is numerous documented evidence of this – up to public confessions of high-ranking government officials in carrying out digital sabotage operations against our country.
It would be no exaggeration to say that since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Western states have unleashed a full-scale campaign against Russia. They seek to test the strength of the economy, the financial and energy sectors, as well as the main industries. The information infrastructure of the Russian Federation is targeted by massive computer attacks, the intensity of which has increased tenfold since the beginning of the special military operation. Moreover, most of them are carried out from the territory of foreign states.
These actions are unprecedented in scale and coordinated in nature. The Western bloc is ready to use any methods and means to disrupt the operability of Russia's information infrastructure. It actively recruits hackers-mercenaries, uses the ICT capabilities of its allies and private companiesunder its control, and purposefully involves ordinary users from all over the world in this criminal activity. To do this, the appropriate tools – detailed instructions for the implementation and coordination of computer attacks, lists of their targets, including specific governmental agencies, critical facilities, the media, and financial structures – are published in open access, i.e. on specialized forums and social networks.
Ukraine is assigned with the role of a testing ground in this scenario. The West pumps in significant financial resources, trains personnel, and provides technical assistance in building up offensive ICT capabilities of the Kiev regime. It is no coincidence that Kiev has been involved in the activities of the Tallinn Cyber Defence Center of the alliance. In other words, it was included in the “cyberNATO”. At the same time, the leaders of Western countries lose sight of the fact that the so-called “IT-army of Ukraine” – a conglomerate of criminal groups created with their help – is already beginning to rob citizens from the so-called Western democracies.
It is important to understand that any State can fall victim to the Western experiments with the use of ICTs for military-political purposes. The United States and its henchmen have embarked on the course of imposing digital neo-colonial dictate. The main goal is to counter independent actors, including Russia, China and others. Sanctions are imposed against the “undesirable” ones, attempts are made to “undermine” the capacities in the most advanced areas – artificial intelligence, high-speed Internet, quantum computing. Online resources broadcasting an alternative point of view to the West are blocked.
The American authorities shamelessly continue the brazen interference in the internal affairs of States through the global system of espionage and interception of personal data established by the American intelligence services, exposed to the whole world by Edward Snowden. They widely use Pegasus and Graphite spyware programs to hack electronic devices of ordinary users, computers around the world – contrary to their own slogans about the protection of human rights.
A recent confirmation of this is the decision by the Biden administration to extend the validity of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We are referring to the notorious legal instrument that gives US intelligence agencies almost unlimited powers in the field of radio-technical surveillance around the world, including within the United States itself.
It is also noteworthy that the leading American IT corporations, including telecom operators, owners of communication services, such as Microsoft, Meta, Google, actually act as accomplices of the American authorities. According to the said law, private enterprises are required to transfer personal information stored at their servers and cloud storages, including correspondence and conversations, to special services. In general, this is another reason for users of the services and products of the mentioned companies to think about the confidentiality of their personal data. One should not forget that American business will always be guided by the neocolonialist aspirations of the US government.
Thank you.
