Security News > 2020 > July > Tony Blair tells Russian infosec conference that cross-border infosec policies need more gov intervention
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has declared that governments can't "Take 10 years to catch up" with cyber crims - while speaking at an infosec conference organised by Vladimir Putin's favourite Russian bank.
Blair scoffed at people with concerns about the role of the state in everyday online life, saying: "When people worry about the data they shared with governments - most people share enormous amounts of data with technology companies!".
The former PM also called for more infosec-focused regulation of globalised big businesses, telling the Russian conference: "As grows in force, it's just a statement of the obvious, you need to be able to protect people properly. I'd like to see much more cooperation on this and a much bigger attempt by businesses across national frontiers to get some common principles that they can then put forward to governments so we can regulate it properly."
In keeping with the conference's cyber theme, Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin said - with a straight face - that online criminality was pressing the Russian authorities "To adapt policies that strengthen digital security of critical activities without undermining the benefits from digital transformation in critical sectors." Russia features regularly, and heavily, as one of the probable originators of many state-sponsored cyberattacks against western countries.
Bizarrely, Putin's official office published an "Interview" of Gref by Putin shortly before the deal was sealed in which the Russian president didn't seem to have much interest in the bank's tech platform ventures.