Expert: Russia should develop local IT firms in cyber fight with US

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (PRIME) – If the Russian government wants to be serious cyber opponents to the U.S., should propel local IT developers to the international markets and create environment for innovation progress rather than ban the use of foreign software, Anna Serebryanikova, head of the association of big data market participants, said on Tuesday.

“If we say that we want to be serious opponents in the fight with the U.S., we should foster our developers and makers of social networks, search engines. We all know them. Why did Facebook and Google conquer the whole Europe? Because the U.S. consequently moved in promoting their companies in Europe,” Serebryanikova said.

“Our populist mood that we’re surrounded by enemies and say let’s not use foreign software (results in) applying it to open software, for example neural networks. We can abandon everything, return to the beginning and write it again. But it is the same as rejecting progress. On the contrary, we should learn to incorporate these technological trends into the state software policy instead of becoming hostages of major global giants. Actually, we already are. What does the U.S. do? It forms environment for innovations. Let’s come closer to the leaders, if they are our potential adversaries.”

The U.S. intelligence expects a rise in cyberthreats to economic prosperity and stability, naming Russia and China among the traditional enemies. The House of Representatives received a bill in January on protection of the Internet, which is, among others, against Web regulation policies of Russia and China.

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