PhD Student Knows how to Protect State Secrets

Alexander Kolomoytsev, ITMO University PhD student, is developing a unique safety net access system for both private companies and government institutions. Using this system one will be able to transfer state secrets without a threat of being hacked. The student talked about opportunities and peculiarities of his development and also paid attention to important moral principles of a scientist.

Information security systems at private companies usually consist of antivirus software, firewalls, backup systems and more. Furthermore safety quality depends on position and connection of devices providing access to the Internet. One of the parts of the research project developed by Mr. Kolomoytsev includes a basic structure for these technical elements. The system is active during the information transfer and then it blocks the access to the Internet.

Alexander Kolomoytsev gives an example of how this system improves security support for government institutions: “For instance, one needs to update antivirus software. Usually users have unlimited Internet access, which gives them an opportunity to update it by one click. Those who work with confidential information have no free access and cannot download updated versions. That is why they use flash cards, discs and other data storage devices but before using them they must fill out relevant documents. It would be much easier for them to have unlimited and at the same time free access so as to receive and share information.”

There two types of data security systems – pre-active and active. The first one is developed to prevent all potential hack attacks. Usually all these systems are unique. Each company develops its’ own ones. Active systems serve as tools for blocking certain types of attacks. Such systems can be modified to deal with new types of security threats. Alexander Kolomoytsev is interested in active systems. It means that clients who use it can choose from what threats he wants to protect the data first of all. Then if required one can modify this system. The PhD student also develops an algorithm, which determines security level of modified systems.

Alexander Kolomoytsev received a grant from St. Petersburg Government to develop his PhD research. Currently he works under the supervision of Vladimir Bogatyrev, professor at the Chair of Computation Technologies. The student wants to put his research into practice but at the same time supposes that results of scientific breakthroughs should be accessible.

“If a scientist discovers something he doesn’t have to keep it a secret. Sometimes researchers don’t share details of research so as to make money out of their projects. I think that it inhibits scientific development because others cannot use relevant results in that field. But if they had they would create something new using this information.”