Information security exercises will be held at five cyber polygons in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the task of digital transformation of key sectors of the economy. Therefore, to protect them, the country has created cyber polygons.

According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, cyber polygons will hone protection against threats to information security in key sectors of the economy.

Mr. Chernyshenko noted that the work of industries, enterprises and even entire cities is being recreated at cyber polygons. They are needed to practice the activities of various bodies to overcome cyber attacks. 

“We need to be in good shape, and to do that we need to practice all the time. And such national training grounds just allow to organize interdepartmental exercises, without endangering the existing work of current industries or executive authorities,” said he.

Mr. Chernyshenko added that the practice is mainly carried out to protect the energy, credit and financial sectors and the infrastructure of state bodies. A separate segment that simulates business processes and cyberattack scenarios specific to any sector of the economy is created for each industry. However, in the future, the number of such sectors will be expanded. 

By the end of 2024 sectoral and functional development of cyber polygon infrastructure is planned. In particular, segments of the oil and gas, telecommunications, transport and metallurgy industries will be created.

“The goal of the cyber polygon is to become an effective tool that ensures the country’s readiness to respond to cyber threats. Today this task has already acquired strategic importance”, said Mikhail Oseevskiy, President of Rostelecom.

It is worth noting that the project to create a national cyber polygon was launched at the end of 2019 to increase the readiness of the state and Russian organizations in key sectors of the economy to repel computer attacks and strengthen state security in the digital space.