Below is an interview with Grigori Saghyan, Vice-President of “Internet Society”

NEWS.am: Mr. Saghyan, what is your opinion of the information security level in Armenia compared with that in the neighboring countries?

Saghyan: Information security is generally dependent on the level of development of particular states. Since the living standards in almost all the states of the region are hardly different, the information security level is almost the same.

In our country, “Internet Society” is playing a certain role in ensuring information security, and it is launching two projects now. The first project is aimed at preventing the dissemination of inaccurate information in the .am zone. A task group has been formed of representatives of various organizations, which will cooperate with the relevant government agencies. After receiving a complaint, the task group will study the information on a particular website. If it finds appeals for terrorism, interethnic strife or trafficking, the website owner will be given time to remove it. If the website owner fails to remove such information, his domain will not any more be seen on the network. After that the owner will be given a month to rectify the situation and get his domain name back. Of course, website owners can appeal the task group’s decision in court, but hardly anyone will do that if violations are obvious. In this context the following question may arise: what if such information is available on websites in the .com, .org and others? International cooperation is expected to be established for dealing with the problem.

The second project involves technical problems of information security. The organization will collect the information on the countries and IP addresses that are mostly sources of hacker attacks against Armenia, particularly attacks for the purpose of distributed denial of service (DDoS). A relevant database will be created, and interoperation will block the IP numbers. The task group will also help users to improve their computer skills. The recommendations will first of all be sent out in the Armenian language, and Russian and English translations may be available.

NEWS.am: What about personnel potential, is skilled personnel available in Armenia?

Saghyan: Armenia’s higher schools do not train specialists in information security. Necessary knowledge can be gained during the whole lifetime – education, work, computer use and Internet technologies. The more specialists the keener is competition, which will finally force them to improve their professional skills.

NEWS.am: What is the reason why hosting services are hardly available in Armenia?

Saghyan: Well, it is not quite so. The Arminco Company alone hosts over 2,000 website, and the Armenian websites abroad can hardly be calculated. The real state of affairs is considered when hosting services are rendered. If a website’s target audience is abroad it should be launched abroad, if its target audience is in Armenia it should be launched in Armenia. Considering the millions-strong Armenian Diaspora, as well as the fact that most Armenian Internet users prefer writing either in Russian or in Roman characters, website owners prefer hosting abroad. Of course, all the government websites, as well as the websites of a number of news agencies are launched and hosted in Armenia.

NEWS.am: What is your opinion of the quality of telecommunication services in Armenia as compared with the neighboring states?

Saghyan: Internet communication is not the main service for telecommunication companies. The situation may change in a few years, but presently the companies mainly receive profits from voice communication. In this context, we can say that Internet development in Armenia is contingent on the development of telecommunications in the country. In Soviet times Armenia ranked fourth after the three Baltic republics. After ArmenTel entered the Armenian market the sector’s development was actually arrested. The situation is, however, improving now — two new companies, VivaCell and Orange, entered the Armenian market. They are developing their own networks and have made essential progress in providing Internet services.

NEWS.am: It should be noted, however, that many Internet users are still complaining about the communication quality…

Saghyan: Yes, wireless Internet has both strong and weak points. It requires radio frequencies for connection between base stations. Insufficient capacity of interstation communication may affect the quality. As up-to-date technologies are introduced, we can expect the quality of wireless Internet to be as high as that of wire communication.

NEWS.am: Has Armenia reached the highest point in telecommunication services?

Saghyan: As compared… Compared with South Korea and Japan, where almost every flat is provided with fiber-optic communication line, Armenia is far behind. Compared with our neighbors… We should not at all compare Armenia with Iran, as the latter is practicing Internet censorship. Things are well in Georgia – they managed to create a high-speed network using telephone communication lines. Internet speed there is several times as high as in Armenia. Azerbaijan is implementing a policy of increasing availability of Internet communication due to price flexibility. So our neighbors are ahead of us in terms of prices and quality. But after new operators came to Armenia, prices have essentially been reduced. Let us hope this trend will continue in Armenia.

NEWS.am: What about competition?

Saghyan: Competition in the field has reached the highest point now. So offers by different operators should be considered with caution. I should say that many companies practice unfair competition by sometimes reducing their prices even below cost. In the recent past the RA Commission for Protection of Economic Competition fined an operator 300m AMD for preventing competition. Experience shows, however, that the problem remains. I can tell you a hope-inspiring piece of news: the Commission for Protection of Economic Competition and Public Services Regulatory Commission decided to combine their efforts to ensure fair market competition.

NEWS.am: What steps does Arminco take to protect its interests on the market?

Saghyan: Our company cannot take any special steps. If one of the companies covers 70% of the market, it can always drive us out. Not much depends on us. Ensuring fair competition is the Government’s prerogative. As society develops, the Government will pay much attention to the problems. To tell the truth, I am somewhat pessimistic about it.

T.P.