PREVENTING CYBER ATTACKS ON CRIRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: A NEW PRIORITY FOR THE RUSSIAN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY?

Abstract

The article analyses the problem of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, including facilities of the nuclear industry. At present there is almost no international legal regulation of the possible usage of information technologies in order to information systems used by object of the critically important infrastructure. Still, there has been an unprecedented growth in the information threats in recent years. As it was revealed in 2010, several Middle East States, first of all Iran in 2008, were the target for a series of systematic and sophisticated computer attacks, whose initiators remain unknown, which were aimed at the collection of information about the objects of critical information infrastructure of these states and its program intrusion. The author supports the thesis of the need for early development of international legal instruments to prevent and prohibit such cyber attacks. At the same time the leadership in the formulation and solution of this problem on the international scene can assume the Russian Federation, whose initiatives have since 1998 shaped the global agenda in terms of regulating the behavior of states in cyberspace. Despite the significant differences of different countries in this area, their positions on ensuring protection against cyber attacks peaceful nuclear infrastructure are the closest to a consensus, creating a window of opportunity for practical progress on this issue in 2013-2014.

Keywords

• critical infrastructure
• cybersecurity
• cyberspace
• cyber attacks
• international law
• nuclear industry
• stuxnet