The package of draft laws on cybersecurity, public information, and Information Systems Regulatory Body, as well as related laws, is ready to be sent to the National Assembly. Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Minister of High-Tech Industry, announced this at Thursday's Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government.

"With the cybersecurity law, we define vital sectors and critical infrastructures in both the public and private sectors. Criteria are being set with risk and impact assessment, the ISO 27,001 standard and other standards are being established, which should be ensured for companies operating civil infrastructure in both the public sector, the state apparatus, and the private sector. Of course, this does not rule out that we will abandon the idea of developing and implementing our national standards in the future. We simply need to ensure that these national standards are competitive in comparison with international standards, as well as consistent with our internal tasks,” said Hayrapetyan.

He noted that the aforesaid Information Systems Regulatory Body will have a committee, whose members will be elected by the National Assembly of Armenia.

“This body will deal with the detection of cyber incidents, they will try to prevent cyber incidents, and in the event of cyber incidents—by cooperating as quickly as possible with state departments, and in the case of the private sector, with companies operating the internal systems of private companies, providing cybersecurity services—it will reduce the damage caused by cyber incidents. That is, the main mission for the state apparatus is that this body will be the center of [cyber] security operations,” said Mkhitar Hayrapetyan.

He noted that preventive measures—annual cyber exercises—will also be implemented, the activities will be transparent, and the aforesaid committee will present annual reports on cyber hygiene in Armenia to the National Assembly.