SearchInform representatives participated in the Internet Governance Forum organised by the UN. This year the event has been held for the 15th time, this time Internet for Human Resilience and Solidarity has been chosen as the subject.
SearchInform representatives took part in five sections, which took place from November 9 to 17: discussions on personal data protection, on building up interregional cyber potential, Security of digital products and Checks and balances of data privacy within mass surveillance” roundtable discussions. In addition, Sergey Ozhegov, CEO of SearchInform, took part in the IGF 2020 Best Practice Forum on Cybersecurity's workstream on exploring best practices in relation to international cybersecurity agreements.

“The Forum has been held for the 15th time already, but the topic of cyber protection, personal data security draws more and more attention every year. Especially in 2020, when the world was forced to face accelerated digitisation due to the pandemic. It was useful for us to hear what problems of informatisation are considered the most urgent in the countries where SearchInform works. Leaders of IT companies and representatives of government authorities voice these problems. Bridging the usage of the Internet, online services, programs in different countries remain one of the most discussed problems. But for our company it was important to hear that digitisation is no longer perceived by officials and business apart from security matter,” said Sergey Ozhegov, CEO of SearchInform.

The Forum was attended by representatives of Microsoft, IBM, Huawei, WhatsApp, Facebook, Google, PwC, Reddit, Kaspersky, Yandex, as well as representatives of governments, universities, associations and other government and non-profit organisations.

The IGF was established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2006 as a forum for dialogue on public policy issues in the Internet governance. These are the topics of sustainability, reliability, security, stability and development of the network. Every year the Forum chooses the host country. In past years, it was hosted by Switzerland, France, India, Brazil, etc. In 2025, the IGF will be held in Russia.