BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 5. Visa is constantly working on the next stage of growth for the international payments system in Azerbaijan, Vice President, Regional Manager of Visa in Central Asia and Azerbaijan Cristina Doros exclusively told Trend.
"The B2B Connect initiative is noteworthy for the country because it was the first launch in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Kapital Bank's experience, as the first to debut the product, proved to be quite fascinating for the rest of Azerbaijan's banking system participants. This platform has already been launched by seven banks in Azerbaijan, and more are in the works. Aside from the current payment alternatives, we are actively working on the next stage of development of the international payment system," she said.
In addition, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs' "E-Polis" smartphone application was introduced last week. The program allows users to submit requests for certifications regarding car damage, presence on a wanted list, required insurance, criminal record, and citizen location, and receive them in digital format.
Azerbaijan was also ranked 12th with 66.67 points in the National Cybersecurity Index, which evaluated 31 countries using 49 factors.
Furthermore, it was announced last week that Azerbaijan will host a first-ever international conference on cyber diplomacy. The conference is scheduled to take place in September 2024.
Head of the State Service for Special Communication and Information Security of Azerbaijan Tural Mammadov noted during the III summit of IT heads of state agencies held in Baku that a new state e-mail system will be launched in Azerbaijan next month.
"The new postal system, which is based on the Domino system, will allow for a variety of extra services. The first Azerbaijani-language interface will be released. A centralized XDR solution will be given to protect end users of governmental institutions, and a mass SMS service will be active starting this year," he said. "The transition of government agencies to the new system, designed for 60,000 users, will take place in stages. The system will open up great opportunities for state institutions in terms of functionality and security."
Mammadov stressed that Azerbaijan's state institutions will be presented with another solution in the form of a protection system in 2024.
"Until now, we have supplied ESET solutions to state institutions as a centralized anti-virus application. However, from this year on they will be presented with the XDR solution. Along with the new solution, we will provide government agencies with MDR services in a broader and more multifunctional way," he added.
It was also noted that 186 bogus domains were found and blacklisted in Azerbaijan in 2023.
Meanwhile, 134 phony domains in the gov.az zone were dispersed and neutralized by State Service of Special Communication and Information Security experts.
Furthermore, last year, the state service discovered 1,191 evidence of compromise, indicating cyber attacks on government electronic systems.
Of these, 517 cyberattacks were detected and averted based on data recorded by the service, and 674 based on information obtained from government agencies.