The FINANCIAL — According to Business Software Alliance 2009’s latest estimates, Georgia is in first place in the list of nations with the highest piracy rates – with its rate of 95%, followed by Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Moldova, all of them showing over 90% piracy of overall software usage. “We cannot say that Georgia is fully prepared for a DDoS attack similar to the one it experienced in August 2008”, Irakli Gvenetadze, Chairman of Data Exchange Agency, exclusively told The FINANCIAL.
“Cyber-attack technologies are constantly developing and becoming more innovative. One thing we can do is to minimize the risk of these cyber-attacks. It means we can implement activities that will complicate cyber-attacks and the damage caused by them will be reduced. It is not only Georgia but other countries too that are not well prepared to resist similar attacks. In fact the USA, other countries and large companies such as Google have been attacked several times before.
“In the cyber security direction we have taken concrete steps; an information security policy is already being introduced in different public institutions and critical infrastructures. Situational analyses and increasing readiness for risk reduction are being done,” said Gvenetadze.
As Georgia (U.S) Tech information | security centre estimates, there is a growing sophistication of botnets pervasive devices and social networking, and threats to physical systems will demand increased vigilance in 2011 in terms of cyber attacks.
In 2009, the worldwide value of unlicensed software hit 51.4 billion USD.
Even in Georgia, Microsoft Georgia LLC representatives lose 150 million USD every year, say company representatives.
“In Georgia we have a 95% piracy rate in terms of software used. So there are approximately 900K install base PCs and if the piracy rate is 95% it means that 855K are using pirate software. Hence if we multiply 855K * 200 USD the total amount is 17,100K USD. It’s impossible to decrease this number (the actual piracy rate) to zero, however it is still preferable to be moving in downward sloping dynamics,” said Zurab Munjishvili, head of Microsoft Georgia LLC, to The FINANCIAL.
“Unfortunately for 3 years Georgia has held first place in terms of piracy rate. I want to note however that the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is using 100% licensed programs in all its departments,” noted Munjishvili.
“Intellectual property is the main product of western civilization. All people are equal and all of them can get financial profit though the usage of their knowledge and therefore achieve success. This law brought about the industrial revolution of the 19th century and technological revolution of the 20th century. Therein a person has motivation to invest in education and through his/her intellectual knowledge to get material wealth,” said Munjishvili.
“Here in Georgia, understanding of the abovementioned principle still isn’t of wide public interest and demand. People point at the Government for not ensuring copyrights, which leads to a common perception of people which is actually how the pirated products are being spread and sold,” noted Munjishvili.
“Pirated production is one of the main threats to the intellectual development of a country. Although Georgian legislation decrees that breaking of copyrights deserves a 3 year prison sentence, this law hasn’t yet been put in to practice,” Munjishvili noted.
“Speaking in terms of security, it is a mix of different components. The usage of licensed programs is one of its pillars. We can’t simply say – I have licensed programs and that’s it – there should be additional components – for instance the way networks are built in organizations, how people use them, the way organizations and people involved use the internet and the access they have to it, etc. A guarantee of safety means a combination of the factors listed above. Licensed program usage is one of the main components of this complex, which incidentally is targeted by cyber attacks first,” Munjishvili said.
“The situation during the August war of 2008 illustrated such attacks and how Georgia is not prepared for it. It’s noteworthy that NATO has started active work in the direction of cyber security,” said Munjishvili.
With cyber attacks taking their toll in the world and their growing adverse impact within the last few years, Georgia has made the first steps towards analyzing the state of affairs in the cyber security field and developing policies on how to strengthen it.
With greater attention paid to regional cyber security issues – Georgia will be organizing the 3rd annual Regional Information Technology and Cyber Security Event in November 10-12, 2010, in Tbilisi supported by ICT Business Council of Georgia, The State Commission of E-Governance Development of Georgia and the LEPL Data exchange Agency of Ministry of Justice of Georgia.
The major objective of which will be to establish and promote effective partnerships among the public and the private sectors, associations and other IT&T industry related organizations in Central and East Europe, Baltic States, the Caucasus and Central Asia region to promote competitiveness, innovation and security with special attention paid to cyber security issues.
As Giorgi Gvenetadze told The FIANANCIAL, the event will cover topics related to recent developments in the e-Government in Georgia, cyber security, licensing of software, etc.
“Making all software legal in Georgia is I think an inevitable process. This process should be done by taking into account the reality and should be as painless for the whole country as possible as this process will affect the majority of the Georgian population. The main key of solving the legalization process lies in the salvation of this issue. The Government and corporations should jointly think out mechanisms that will finish this process painlessly. I would like to mention that it is necessary also to promote open source software, which might be considered one of the outcomes. Currently many public institutions and large business are taking steps from the point of legalization of software,” Gvenetadze told The FINANCIAL.
“When talking about the legal issues of software we should differentiate between illegal and pirate software. A program is illegal if a copy of it was made illegally and also if it is cracked, etc. Risk is higher in the latter case, but the cyber security issue is not solved by solving legalization issues. Cyber security, which is a part of information security is wider and consists of many aspects,” noted Gvenetadze.
“The breaking of websites during the war between Russia and Georgia is an absolutely different kind of problem from the legalization of Microsoft products. Here we face the issue of raising public awareness of cyber security in general and absence or unawareness of different security standards,” said Gvenetadze.
“Works are ongoing in terms of law enforcement (copyright), enforcement issues in the State Revenue Service and National Intellectual Property Centre (Sakpatenti),” he stressed.
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