Thousands of digital risks: Marina Ryzhkova in interview to RIA Tomsk about Digital Defender project
Before this year’s end, the scientists from the Tomsk State University Institute of Economics and Management will develop a concept of the platform that will consolidate various tools and methods for providing human security in the digital environment. The project is supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Challenge for science and technology
In 2021, scientists from the IEM Laboratory of Human Psychological and Financial Security applied for a grant competition hosted by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation as part of the Priority 2030 development program. They presented a project called “The Institute of Digital Human Defender as New Element of Digital Society”.
The project became one of the competition winners and received a grant of 1 million rubles for 2022.
There are three scientists among the authors of the project – Marina Ryzhkova, professor of the IEM Department of Economics, Mikhail Chikov, IEM Deputy Director for Research, and Svetlana Martynova, head of the Department of State and Municipal Management. They were assisted by students of the Institute of Economics and Management.
Marina Ryzhkova told about the objectives of the project.
– Marina Vyacheslavovna, how the project to create the so-called “Digital Defender” was started, and what can it defend Russian Internet users from?
– In our world, there are always various ideas up in the air. The question is who is going to voice them first. It is absolutely clear that the digital environment presents many threats. Peoplecan protect themselves by using various apps and program, but criminals will always find a breach. There is no comprehensive protection tool neither in Russia nor in other countries.
The idea of “universal defender” is being discussed by a lot of companies and organizations all over the world. Thisisanewchallengeforscienceandtechnology.
And this how the idea to classify all risks existing on the Internet and create the concept of “digital defender” came to be. Our job as scientists is to create a concept, but it’s the practical experts who will bring it to life.
– What tasks has your team set themselves?
– For us it is a search project. We can name three main objectives. The first is to systematize the risks a person encounters in the digital environment. For this purpose, we have already conducted a survey among the students asking them to point out the risk they see on the net. In the end we received almost 1.7 thousand risks!
This is, for example, bullying, various extremist groups, and applications that get our financial and personal data.
The second task is to create the framework of the “Institute of Digital Defender”. We have already begun this work and willcomplete it by the end of summer. It is needed to consider which blocks the “Digital Defender” need to contain, taking into account the identified risks. It is planned to be an online platform that would work as a megaservice.
The third task is to determine the government’s function in implementation of the Institute’s of Digital Defender elements. We understand that if the realization is handed to the commercial structures, they will find their own interest in it. The only structure that would implement this idea so it would really be for the good of the society is the government with its services and expertise.
– Is the interaction between the government and other players planned in the concept?
– Such cooperation should be necessary. The place of non-governmental institutes, especially financial ones, will be determined in the concept. However, the leading role will be assigned to the government patronage over public and commercial services.
And, of course, we will ask the government for its opinion. After determining the concept, during the next two months we are going to conduct a number of meetings with the officials and experts from other state institutions. The synergy in defending people is fundamentally important.
A concept across the sciences
The IEM Laboratory of Human Psychological and Financial Security was created in 2021, according to the TSU website. Among its staff are economists, psychologists, lawyers and philologists.
"The interdisciplinarity of the new laboratory is fundamentally important - the threats faced by people in the digital space are so nontrivial and multidimensional that their elimination requires effective solutions from different fields. The work on the grant will be a productive start for the laboratory," says Mikhail Chikov, IEM Deputy Director for Research.
According to him, the grant project to create a "Digital Defender" is a complex concept: a system of rules and technologies that increase human security in the digital environment.
How to not become a victim of fraud, how to protect yourself when fraudsters start to interact with you, how to talk with them by phone, via e-mail, social media, etc. The project will answer these questions and offer solutions to anchor this set of recommendations in human behavior.
"The project should not be limited only to the current year: it is a large-scale development, significant for today's society as a whole," the website summarizes.
Challenge for science and technology
In 2021, scientists from the IEM Laboratory of Human Psychological and Financial Security applied for a grant competition hosted by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation as part of the Priority 2030 development program. They presented a project called “The Institute of Digital Human Defender as New Element of Digital Society”.
The project became one of the competition winners and received a grant of 1 million rubles for 2022.
There are three scientists among the authors of the project – Marina Ryzhkova, professor of the IEM Department of Economics, Mikhail Chikov, IEM Deputy Director for Research, and Svetlana Martynova, head of the Department of State and Municipal Management. They were assisted by students of the Institute of Economics and Management.
Marina Ryzhkova told about the objectives of the project.
– Marina Vyacheslavovna, how the project to create the so-called “Digital Defender” was started, and what can it defend Russian Internet users from?
– In our world, there are always various ideas up in the air. The question is who is going to voice them first. It is absolutely clear that the digital environment presents many threats. Peoplecan protect themselves by using various apps and program, but criminals will always find a breach. There is no comprehensive protection tool neither in Russia nor in other countries.
The idea of “universal defender” is being discussed by a lot of companies and organizations all over the world. Thisisanewchallengeforscienceandtechnology.
And this how the idea to classify all risks existing on the Internet and create the concept of “digital defender” came to be. Our job as scientists is to create a concept, but it’s the practical experts who will bring it to life.
– What tasks has your team set themselves?
– For us it is a search project. We can name three main objectives. The first is to systematize the risks a person encounters in the digital environment. For this purpose, we have already conducted a survey among the students asking them to point out the risk they see on the net. In the end we received almost 1.7 thousand risks!
This is, for example, bullying, various extremist groups, and applications that get our financial and personal data.
The second task is to create the framework of the “Institute of Digital Defender”. We have already begun this work and willcomplete it by the end of summer. It is needed to consider which blocks the “Digital Defender” need to contain, taking into account the identified risks. It is planned to be an online platform that would work as a megaservice.
The third task is to determine the government’s function in implementation of the Institute’s of Digital Defender elements. We understand that if the realization is handed to the commercial structures, they will find their own interest in it. The only structure that would implement this idea so it would really be for the good of the society is the government with its services and expertise.
– Is the interaction between the government and other players planned in the concept?
– Such cooperation should be necessary. The place of non-governmental institutes, especially financial ones, will be determined in the concept. However, the leading role will be assigned to the government patronage over public and commercial services.
And, of course, we will ask the government for its opinion. After determining the concept, during the next two months we are going to conduct a number of meetings with the officials and experts from other state institutions. The synergy in defending people is fundamentally important.
A concept across the sciences
The IEM Laboratory of Human Psychological and Financial Security was created in 2021, according to the TSU website. Among its staff are economists, psychologists, lawyers and philologists.
"The interdisciplinarity of the new laboratory is fundamentally important - the threats faced by people in the digital space are so nontrivial and multidimensional that their elimination requires effective solutions from different fields. The work on the grant will be a productive start for the laboratory," says Mikhail Chikov, IEM Deputy Director for Research.
According to him, the grant project to create a "Digital Defender" is a complex concept: a system of rules and technologies that increase human security in the digital environment.
How to not become a victim of fraud, how to protect yourself when fraudsters start to interact with you, how to talk with them by phone, via e-mail, social media, etc. The project will answer these questions and offer solutions to anchor this set of recommendations in human behavior.
"The project should not be limited only to the current year: it is a large-scale development, significant for today's society as a whole," the website summarizes.