The Eastern European DNS Forum 2020 was, hosted by Tbilisi, addressed the issue of the development of the DNS industry and the deepening of international cooperation. The event was organized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and supported by Caucasus Online as the top-level domain administrator of .GE Georgia.
Mikhail Anisimov, Head of Global Stakeholder Engagement for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, spoke to BMG about the main issues discussed at the forum. As Anisimov noted, the representatives of DNS companies shared their experience gained operating through the times of COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from it, the panelists also discussed the state of adoption of new technologies like 5G and IoT and issues related to cybersecurity.
"The forum covers a wide range of DNS related topics. 2020 is a very specific year as you know, this year was really tough for DNS market players and for the whole industry. That is why we are discussing some new solutions to keep our industry sustainable.
In addition, we discussed how the market is changing, how the economy is changing. Of course, we also discussed cybersecurity and technical systems like the internet of things; 5G network; digital object architecture and object authentication and all of these technologies work thanks to DNS. Therefore, that is a very wide range of topics we are trying to cover within this forum.
Threat from cyber security could not be localized on a geographic basis, because all malicious actors are globally distributed. They might be sitting in one country and they can be attacking infrastructure in another country by the means and tools that are located in the third country. So these networks are spread around the world.
Actually it means that we should be equally protected no matter in what country we are. That is why all these threats are equally important for every country. DNS infrastructure software specialists should be very well educated to combat the threats that they can face.
We at ICANN spend quite a lot of time working against such threats. Phishing is an example of this. For example, you are trying to log in to Internet banking, but this time there is an attempt to trick you into another address and steal your bank details and DNS security is critical in this case," said Mikhail Anisimov.
Mikhail Anisomov also spoke about ICANN and its mandate in the whole Internet ecosystem. According to him, “ as the coordinating body for what’s known as the Domain Name System, - what we refer to as the DNS- ICANN’s mission is to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems, to protect the interoperability of the Internet. The DNS is a fundamental Internet technology that enables users to navigate the Internet and easily reach their preferred platforms (applications, content and services) that ride on top of the Internet.” Further adding “It is this framework that we must protect to ensure the interoperability of the Internet.”
We are working with international partners to ensure the continued functioning of this infrastructure. Our partners in this process include different stakeholders, governmental organizations, non commercial organizations, private companies, civil society and other stakeholders. That is very briefly what ICANN is and what we do,”Mikhail Anisimov said.
The Eastern European DNS Forum was conducted in a fully remote format considering the epidemic situation. It was attended by representatives of Eastern European Internet and telecommunications companies, public sector representatives and other stakeholders.
