The main topic of the Cyber Polygon 2021 was the safe development of digital ecosystems. The training session consisted of two parallel tracks: an online broadcast for a wide audience, viewed by over 7 million people in 78 countries; and a technical track for cybersecurity experts, in which 200 organizations in 48 countries participated.
Cyber Polygon was opened by Herman Gref, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank. This was followed by welcoming remarks from Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, and Klaus Martin Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. Professor Schwab noted the growing level of threats from cybercriminals and acknowledged that technological development is playing a key role in combating new threats.
The first session of the event was a dialog entitled “Ecosystems as a New Way of Global Integration”, in which Herman Gref and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, took part. The speakers talked about how Apple has been developing, about the barriers and risks ecosystems face today, and about the role technology and education play in the development of the digital world.
The second debate – “The Digital State of Tomorrow – What Will it be?” included contributions by Ryan Chilcote, an independent TV presenter and former correspondent for Bloomberg TV and CNN, Roger Halbheer, Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft, and Igor Lyapunov, Vice President for Information Security at Rostelecom. The participants in the session spoke about how technological progress is changing the face of the state, the role played by business in this process, and the measures being taken to protect citizens around the world.
The next part of the program was a session entitled “New world — new currency. How to make the financial system resilient as digital currencies proliferate?”. Matthew Blake, Head of Financial and Monetary System Initiatives at the World Economic Forum, Mark Barnett, President of Mastercard Europe, Matthew Dill, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ventures, Senior Vice President of Visa, and Alexey Zabotkin, Deputy Governer of the Bank of Russia, discussed prospects and risks in the development of digital currencies, current projects in this field, and the impact of new payment methods on the traditional financial system.
During the live broadcast with the ISS, Stanislav Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank, chatted with astronauts Oleg Novitsky and Petr Dubrov. The astronauts talked about how technologies help them to perform their working tasks on the station, about how international collaboration is developing in the space sector, and about the fact that even astronauts get attacked by internet fraudsters.
This was followed by a broadcast of a session on “Combating ransomware — developing an international response”. It was joined by Craig Jones, Cybercrime Director at Interpol, Michael Daniel, President and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance, and Teresa Walsh, Global Head of Intelligence at FS-ISAC. The speakers discussed why the number of cryptoware attacks has increased exponentially over the past year, what measures are already being taken to combat this dangerous threat at the government and private level, and what needs to be done to reinforce international collaboration against cybercriminals.
Participants of the debate “Resilient supply chains — protect people by protecting business” Chris McCurdy, Vice President and General Manager of IBM Security, Dorit Dor, Vice President for Products at Check Point Software Technologies, Kevin Simzer, COO of Trend Micro, and Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, discussed today’s challenges around protecting organizations against supply chain attacks, what measures need to be taken to ensure the security of the entire partner network, and why the principle of “cyberimmunity” lies at the heart of strong defence.
After this, there was a special broadcast by Jürgen Stock, Secretary General of Interpol, who spoke about the role of the international police in fighting global cybercrime.
Next up was a dialog between Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Mikhail Vinogradov, Head of the General Department of International Legal Cooperation, General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation, on the role of the Red Cross in creating a safe digital space.
The event also included a debate between Jovan Kurbalija, Founder Director of DiploFoundation, Andrey Vorobyov, Director of the .RU/.RF Domain Coordination Center, and Mandy Carver, SVP for Government and Intergovernmental Organization Engagement at ICANN. The speakers discussed how to protect users in the global digital space whilst taking into account the interests of all parties – states, business and people.
The final presentation in the broadcast was a dialog between Stanislav Kuznetsov and Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, on the problem of cyberbullying and protecting children against threats in the digital world.
For the third year in a row, Cyber Polygon brought together representatives of government bodies and major international organizations, experts on cybersecurity and technical specialists from around the world. We spoke about the opportunities and risks of technological development, and discussed the security of digital currencies and the future of the digital state. I think it’s particularly important that during the event we also touched on the topic of protecting children in the digital space. More than 7 million viewers from 78 countries around the world watched the live broadcast. We all did some great work at the event. I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to our safe future.
Stanislav Kuznetsov
Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank
