Information and Communication Technologies

Chapter 1IntroductionIn modern society, most people are familiar with information and communication technologies: ICT is used at home and at work, for personal needs and for study; with their help bills are paid, things are bought and sold, interaction with state structures is carried out – all this and much more is done in the cyberspace. But are many really aware of the importance and danger of cyberthreats? The European Union, for example, is aware of and is doing its utmost to ensure cybersecurity, at least within the EU member states. Commercial enterprises, society, state structures and national security depend on the functioning of information technology and the competent exploitation of a critical information infrastructure; transport, communications, financial services, emergency and utilities rely on reliable, complete and secure information transmitted through this infrastructure. That is why the problem of cyberspace protection is critically important for the European Union. An incident that causes a violation of such infrastructure or IT systems can lead to serious negative consequences for the functioning of society and the economy. To assist in the organization of the protection of each individual EU member state and the European Union as a whole, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) was established to deal with the rapid detection, analysis and prevention of cyber incidents, as well as monitoring of the existing situation cases with cyberthreats. ENISA deals with a very wide range of issues: it creates reports on cyberthreats and cyber incidents, produces useful materials for experts in the field of information technology, conducts cyber exercises with the countries of the European Union, organizations and citizens of the EU, interacts with agencies and agencies of the European Union itself, holds meetings and conferences, and much more, but ENISA has not yet fully revealed its potential. Based on this statement, this study was aimed at assessing the effectiveness and construct a scenario for the future development of the agency. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were identified:Identify key terms on cyberspace;Identify the reasons for the establishment, the main goals and objectives of the agency on network and information security;To consider and evaluate the effectiveness of the internal organization of the work of ENISA;Identify the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the practical and scientific activities of the Agency for Network and Information Security;Identify the key factors for building the forecast.Thus, the research question: How an entity such as agency or organization can be effective in providing security in cyberspace? For this study, we can distinguish two chronological frames – the first includes the time from 2004 to 2016 in that part of the work that is devoted to the history of the creation of the agency and the evolution of its goals, tasks and internal structure; second include the period from 2014 to 2016 in that part of the work that is devoted to the direct activities of ENISA. Since the full package of documents on the results of the year from the approximate time to us is only for 2014, for 2015 there are only partial data in free access and for 2016 there is only a work program available – a full package of documents will allow us to view the agency's performance in 2014 by comparing the planned tasks and their immediate execution, and the analysis of documents for 2015 and 2016 permits third degree of confidence in the agency, its development and predict the possible prospects of its development. The object of this study is the cybersecurity of the European Union, and the subject is the European Network and Information Security Agency.Scientific novelty lies in the fact that for this study was derived its definition of â€Å"cyberspace†, which, in the author's opinion, is the most complete reflection of all levels in it. Moreover, this study builds an independent scenario for the future development of ENISA.This work is based primarily on sources of internal organization of the work of the agency and its activities. The most important source is the charter of the agency for network and information security. In addition, an important European document is the convention on cybersecurity signed in 2001. The second most important for this study was the European cybersecurity strategy â€Å"Open, secure and reliable cyberspace†, as it provides the vector for the movement in the field of providing secure cyberspace. ?Chapter 2Literature Review2.1. Formation of the concepts â€Å"cyberspace† and â€Å"cyberthreat†. In the early 1990s, English sociologist E. Giddens proposed the theory of â€Å"reflexive modernization† of society, the main position of which is the idea of an increasing organization of society (Beck, Giddens & Lash, 1994). Modernization of society implies, firstly, an increase in the chances of choice for all members of a given society, which they implement under certain conditions, and secondly, the growth of reflexivity, which, according to Giddens, collects and processes information necessary for the adoption of various kinds â€Å"If today we choose our religion according to our personal beliefs, then we need information about other religions to make a choice,† Webster writes. There is a certain program: gathering information, conducting its analysis, making decisions based on possible risks. In a society where such a scheme exists, there will always be a high demand for information, caused by the desire to control the situation at all levels – from the political to the personal. First, at the state level, the collection and processing of information become important factors, since the main goals that cannot be overcome. To this end, the most complex systems, which by means of special computer technologies are engaged in continuous verification of the environment in all spheres of society. An example is the American system Echelon, which deals with â€Å"e-mail and facsimile mail forwarding †¦ and stores in its memory 5 trillion pages of text† (Webster, 2002). Secondly, computer technologies are widely used in the military sphere. In the new information society, the type of warfare has changed: from the industrial type to the so-called â€Å"information wars†. The main differences between the new type of war are the automation of control systems over the dispersed armed forces of the state (in cases where it is important for the state to present information in a favorable light for itself). According to Webster, to carry out a new type of war, the most modern technologies and means of protecting them are needed, careful planning of counterstrikes which, for example, is assisted by programmable weapon systems, simulation of the situation by means of computer visualization programs and system analysis (2002). Proceeding from this, the information war is, in fact, pre-programmed, because the most rapid response to a military act that contributes only to the computer, which is used in the conduct of this war. In addition, the use of information and communication technologies in the strategic sector of the economy, for example, the use of an automated milling machine in production. All of the above findings lead to the conclusion that cyberspace is becoming a kind of new â€Å"battlefield† for modern nation states. The core concepts and our understanding of international relations have its roots a decade or two back in history, which is why there created on the presumption that countries are suitable bodies in global politics, and that agreements between countries will decrease the possibility of attack and conflict. Alike historic view appreciates, takes into account the national borders and considers the cross border violation as a special case (Choucri & Goldsmith, 2012). However, few critical characteristics of the cyberspace do not go along with the historic view, it has formed a new way to complicate the tension in the world and modern options to prevent conflict. Nowadays, the modern conflicts that are based on cyberspace are happening, everything from â€Å"transnational crime and espionage to cyberwar that could disrupt military systems, shut down government servers, or damage critical infrastructure† (Choucri & Goldsmith, 2012).In addition, citizens of countries unite increasingly use the Internet for individual needs. According to the report of European Commission on 2015 on cybersecurity, 60% of EU citizens use the Internet daily for personal use (compared to 2013, the increase was 6%) and about 14% use the Internet about 5 times a week, and only 9% do not have a home Internet at all (Table 1). In general, the number of Internet users (both for personal and work needs) the growth has increased, and the percentage of people without access to the Internet has decreased, and the percentage of people who do not use the Internet has also decreased (Table 1). In addition, the percentage of people using social networks, making purchases via the Internet and using Internet banking services, has increased (Table 2). This growing trend has also led to increased public anxiety about security in cyberspace. According to the report, most EU citizens are concerned about the abuse of their personal data of third parties and the safety of online transactions with funds. In order to protect themselves from cyberthreats, the most popular of them are installing anti-virus and ignoring strange content sent to the mail or in social networks. However, it seems strange that only 38% of people try not to spread personal information about themselves to the network for their safety. Although this can be explained by the fact that the percentage of people who believe that websites and the state protect any personal information has increased (For example, there is a â€Å"shift† of responsibility for the safety of data from their shoulders to others) (Table 3). But it is worth noting that in this case there arises a certain â€Å"security dilemma†: if a state or organization takes up careful protection of personal data of users, first of all they will require full access to any personal information for themselves (they will need to know what exactly protect). Will not this lead to a loss of freedom? That is the dilemma: to ensure a high level of security, one must sacrifice personal freedom and vice versa. It is possible that a certain percentage of the citizens of the European Union are ready to sacrifice this freedom, since the percentage of people who understand the danger of cyberthreats has nevertheless grown by an average of 1.5% over the previous year, hence people are increasingly aware of the importance of this sphere (Table 4). Thus, we observe that cyberspace has become an integral part of our society – the economy, public administration, people's daily lives and social interaction depend on the proper operation of information and communication technologies. That is why special attention should be paid to the protection of cyberspace from cybercrime of various kinds: abuse of frequent information, malicious activity, cyberterrorism, etc. At the same time, cybersecurity cannot be fully implemented by only one country and requires international cooperation, since the cybersphere has neither state, nor any other borders. â€Å"Cybersecurity is a global problem that requires a global response,† said N. Kroes, EU Commissioner for Digital Policy, in her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos (2013). Cybersecurity has become the object of growing concern and attention right after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York, when it was determined that terrorists used the Internet for negotiations, intelligence, research purposes and dissemination of their propaganda. But the state immediately encountered a problem that hampered and hampered so far fruitful cooperation – no one can form a single definition of the term â€Å"cyberspace†, at least on the level of whether cyberspace is considered only the environment of the World Wide Web, or in cyberspace, various computer technologies and networks that connect them. This research could form its notion of cyberspace as difficult to understand an environment that does not have a physical form, created through the interaction of people, software and the Internet with the help of electricity, special equipment and networks associated with them. The above definitions formed the basis for understanding cyberspace for this study, and cybersecurity will be considered as the absence of threats in cyberspace.Based on the definition of cyberspace given above, you can see that the cybersphere is not homogeneous and has several levels on which it exists. David Clark, an American scientist in the field of informatics, applied a systemic approach and derived the very â€Å"levels of cyberspace† (2010):Physical level – that is, physical devices that are the â€Å"foundation† of cyberspace: it's PCs and servers, â€Å"supercomputers† and power systems, satellites, sensors, as well as other technical connectors (wired and wireless). Thus, at this level, cyberspace has some geographical location and is subject to the national jurisdiction of any state;The logical level is the code, the platform that provides the â€Å"nature† of cyberspace;Information level – it is about information that is stored, transmitted and transformed in cyberspace;Social level – people who directly transform the nature of cyberspace as a result of its use.