On June 23-24, 2022, Yerevan hosted the XIII meeting of the Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Consultative Coordination Center for Computer Incident Response (CSTO CCC), which was attended by delegations of representatives of relevant national authorized bodies.

In the year of the 30th anniversary of the Treaty and the 20th anniversary of the CSTO, the head of the Main Department of Information Security and Government Communications of the RA NSS opened the meeting and addressed the participants with a welcoming speech, who, on behalf of the leadership of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, warmly welcomed colleagues. In his speech, the head of the Main Department highlighted a number of problematic issues, stressed the importance of strengthening joint efforts aimed at ensuring information security and improving cooperation between the CSTO member states.

Then the meeting was led by the Chairman of the Council of the CSTO CCC, who in his speech presented a picture of current threats in the first half of 2022 and described in detail the dynamics of joint measures taken to respond to computer incidents.

Members of the CSTO CCC discussed the most urgent threats to information security, such as phishing and DDoS attacks. They compared the current situation in the field of information security with the situation in 2021. They stressed the importance of further development of information cooperation to detect, prevent and eliminate the consequences of computer attacks, as well as to respond to computer incidents.

The meeting participants considered the essence of attacks, noted the importance of raising user awareness of information security issues. They exchanged also information on national approaches to counteracting the operation of phishing resources. They discussed the necessary measures to combat botnets, and the importance of interaction with telecommunications operators was emphasized. National approaches and practices used in the CSTO member States were reviewed.  They discussed also the design and preparation for a planned technical training on computer security in the second half of this year.

The delegates of the meeting shared their positive experience in protecting national critical information infrastructure facilities from cyber threats, information on computer incidents in the information spaces of the CSTO member States, and information and analytical materials provided by national points of contact.

The Armenian side introduced the participants to the deployed hardware-software system for counteraction to computer attacks, using the example of one of the facilities of critical information infrastructure, which has been upgraded this year. Further cooperation to improve the skills of employees was discussed.