Saint Petersburg Hosts Expo Showcasing Cybersecurity Export Products

On April 23-25, Russia’s Saint Petersburg is hosting the 12th International Meeting of High-Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Matters. This is the first time that the event has welcomed leading Russian companies demonstrating export products and information security (IS) technologies.

The event is organized under the auspices of the Security Council of the Russian Federation (SCRF) and is aimed to tackle issues around upholding IS within a new multipolar world.

In recent years, Russian companies have acquired unique experience in countering massive cyberattacks. Even under harsh sanctions and restrictions they have managed to protect Russia’s federal, industrial, and financial infrastructure, the SCRF noted.

All this happened “amid a sharply escalated geopolitical confrontation, a clear desire of major Western nations to maintain their economic and technological dominance, as well as against the backdrop of an unprecedented spike in aggressive cyber threats,” the SCRF emphasized.

The exhibition is primarily focused on offering domestically acquired competencies and technological solutions for developing sovereign IS systems to foreign partners.

At the expo, several companies make up a single cluster under the Center of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Cybersecurity. The organization was established with the support of the SCRF to ensure more efficient cybersecurity, primarily on the foreign economic track.

Russian cybersecurity giant Kaspersky is among the exhibitors. The company has presented new features that help detect hacker attacks targeting government agencies and critical infrastructure, promptly counter them, and ensure nationwide cybersecurity as a whole. Kaspersky also offers a subscription service tracking vulnerability data of different apps.

Cyberus, an effective cybersecurity development fund, has outlined its strategy for transforming the IS industry on three tiers: checking the current security level, building effective protection with Russian technologies and creating a local IS market via advanced staff training.

Security Code is another key participant of the event. This Russian soft- and hardware developer designs IS systems that fully comply with both Russian and international standards. The company’s products cover securing sensitive information, personal data, as well as governmental and commercial classified records.

One exciting theme of the expo was highlighting trends in IS development. The organizers demonstrated a comprehensive and insightful look into how the industry has changed through the years.

The expo also has many exhibits of Russian cipher equipment, provided by the Moscow-based Cryptography Museum, such as the Phialka (lViolet) cipher-encoding machine, the Machta (lMast) telegraph cipher equipment, as well as the Apatit (Apatite), Agat (Agate) and Ametists (Amethyst) pre-encryption devices. All of them were developed during the Soviet era between early 1950s and late 1970s.