Peculiarities of legislative regulation of the sphere of information security: problem issues and terminological collisions in Ukraine

Problem setting. For a long time, the issues of information security have been considered in the national legislation of Ukraine through the prism of indirect legal regulation, and only in recent years there has been a tendency to develop new legal mechanisms in this area and streamline the legal system. This approach is due primarily to the fact that in the context of information aggression by the Russian Federation requires a clear regulatory framework for methods and means of combating threats to national security of Ukraine, ensuring a coordinated position of the authorities.

In general, the legislative and regulatory framework for the functioning of Ukraine's information sphere meets European standards, which is confirmed by the OSCE representatives, who have repeatedly conducted external examinations. The state policy of forming a secure information space provides for solving problems in several areas: 1) protection of national information sovereignty and public consciousness from destructive information and psychological influences; 2) guaranteeing the individual, society and the state the realization of their constitutional rights to information; 3) ensuring a sufficient level of information awareness of citizens and government agencies to make informed decisions.

Given the above tasks, the system of legal regulation of information security in Ukraine is undergoing further transformational changes, but this process is marked by some inconsistencies and sometimes inconsistencies, as a result of which the legal framework in the field of information security remains imperfect.

Recent research and publications analysis. Theoretical and practical aspects of the formation of state information policy and the development of the legislative framework in the field of information security of Ukraine were studied by such well-known Ukrainian scientists as G. Pocheptsov, N. Aksonova, O. Karpenko, O. Dodonov, Y. Nesteryak, I. Aristova, V. Bryzhko, O. Khitra, I. Franchuk and others. However, a certain inconsistency between certain legislative and regulatory norms, as well as the legal uncertainty of a number of legal terms that have appeared in legislative texts recently, remain unresolved.

Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. The purpose of the article: to develop practical recommendations for resolving conflicts of regulatory and legal support in the field of information security.

Presenting main material. Significant strengthening of the influence of false, distorted and manipulative information observed in the global and domestic media space requires clearer legal regulation of public information relations.

Given the large volume of regulations governing the field of information security, and their certain inconsistency and the presence of cases of inconsistencies between them, the regulatory framework for information security should be considered through the criteria of legal force.

In view of this, the legislation of Ukraine on information security can be divided into: 1) norms of constitutional law; 2) laws of Ukraine in the field of information security; 3) bylaws relating to various aspects of protection and security of the information space of Ukraine.

We can state that the concept of information security has a constitutional nature, as it is enshrined in part 1 of art. 17 of the Basic Law of Ukraine, which establishes the rule that information security is one of the most important functions of the state. However, the Constitution of Ukraine does not disclose the content of this function of the state. The Constitution of Ukraine regulates information security of citizens more thoroughly. In particular, art. 31, 32 contain a set of rules for personal information security, and art. 34 guarantees the right of a person to information and freedom of thought and speech, free expression of their views and beliefs.

Even more substantively, the sphere of information security is regulated by general and special laws of Ukraine, in particular, the law "On National Security of Ukraine", "On Information", "On Printed Mass Media (Press) in Ukraine", "On Personal Data Protection" and others.

Among the main ones that define the conceptual principles of information security are the Doctrine of Information Security of Ukraine, approved by the Decree of the President of Ukraine of February 25, 2017 №47 / 2017 and the National Security Strategy of Ukraine approved by the Decree of the President of Ukraine of September 14, 2020 year №392 / 2020.

Problems of inconsistency of terminology in modern information legislation require a clear definition at the legislative level of such concepts as "information and psychological security", "information and psychological impact", "state information policy", "national information space" and others. Incorrect or insufficiently clear definition of these definitions, which have acquired a political rather than legal meaning, but are mentioned in the legal documentation, allows you to use them arbitrarily and interpret at its discretion.

Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. Analysis of regulations in the field of information security of Ukraine allows us to conclude that it is necessary to improve its information legislation.

The main shortcoming of the legal regulation of information security of Ukraine is the scattering of its individual norms in numerous regulations of various legal force. Moreover, the hierarchy of strategic documents is violated: important provisions are not regulated at the legislative level, but at the level of bylaws that can be adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers or the National Security and Defense Council. Hence the problem of inconsistency of legal acts with each other.

The second feature of the information legislation of Ukraine is the declarative nature of a significant array of rules without specifying ways to implement them. In addition, the large number of blanket legal norms, the presence of numerous abstract or political concepts that require a clear legal definition or official interpretation, terminological inconsistency of basic definitions such as "information security" or "misinformation"), create additional sources of threats in the national information space.

Prospects for further research, in our opinion, are to analyze and assess the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with numerous challenges and threats in the context of geopolitical information confrontation on the one hand, and ensuring the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of speech, freedom of thought and expression – on the other.