Nation to Protect Its Information Space

Ukrainian Internet providers are in preparation for licensing of their businesses according to a presidential decree of December 6 bringing into effect an NDSC resolution of October 31, 2001, On Measures to Improve the State Information Policy and Ensure Information Security in Ukraine. According to the official presidential website, the Cabinet of Ministers has been given two months to draft a bill that would foresee licensing of such businesses. Additionally, providers will be obliged to store Internet-traffic protocols for half a year, reads the presidential directive urging the government to submit a bill On Data Protection in Information Computer Systems for consideration in Verkhovna Rada within a period of six months. Two preceding NSDC sessions also concluded that the telecommunications sector in Ukraine is extremely criminalized and the information sector is showing negative trends that pose a threat to the country’s national interests and tarnish its international image. The same presidential decree, which brings the NDSC resolution into effect, holds off issuing licenses to provide long-distance calls pending the adoption of the telecommunications law and sale of a stake in the national communications operator, Ukrtelekom, to an industrial investor. The Cabinet has a month to put forward specific proposals. So far nine companies have been licensed to provide long-distance calls. Six more seek to obtain such licenses. The negative trends revealed by the NDSC and accentuated in the presidential decree of December 6 are to be further probed by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine which will inspect regional television companies for violations of antimonopoly legislation. The implementation of the decree will be controlled by NDSC Secretary Yevhen Marchuk, reports Interfax-Ukraine.