The 5th Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF 2014) was followed up by themed panels where participants discussed cyber security, online privacy and prospects for developing innovative top level domains.

Thus, the Meet New Domains panel brought together representatives of the .ДЕТИ, .МОСКВА/.MOSCOW, .TATAR, .РУС and .УКР domains, who exchanged views about positioning new domains and the opportunities that these domains will provide to users. All speakers noted that innovative top level domains are designed to unite communities of people and to expand the domain space by attracting new Internet users. The innovative top level domains are now at different stages of readiness, so the participants were interested in the recently opened .УКР Cyrillic TLD in Ukraine. The date of the forum corresponded with the beginning of limited registration of the .ДЕТИ domain, which was also widely discussed by the participants.

The In Full Right panel members had a vigorous debate, expressing opposite points of view regarding online anonymity, unrestricted access to information, as well as Russian and international online regulations. The debates focused on online copyright enforcement, which aroused great interest among panel participants. Members of the Fear/no/Action. Privacy on the Net panel discussed online human rights and personal data protection. The meeting participants focused on users’ rights to protect their personal information and the government’s and businesses’ access to such data. They expressed the view that the right to personal data protection online is one of the basic human rights.

Members of the Danger-Free Internet panel discussed the protection of information against cybercrime. The participants pointed out the difference in national and international approaches to cyber security. Participants with practical experience in fighting cybercrime described real threats posed by international cybercrime and expressed the opinion that international institutions and documents similar to those of the IAEA and treaties limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons may be needed in order to combat it.

The Forum concluded with a lecture by Director of NLnet Labs and former chairman of the Internet Architecture Board Olaf Kolkman entitled “Architecture of the Internet as the Basis for Future Innovations." A video of the lecture will be available on the RIGF website soon.