CURRENT ISSUES OF LEGAL SUPPORT FOR CYBERSECURITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN AND PROSPECTS FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

This article examines the current state of the legal framework for cybersecurity in the Republic of Uzbekistan from constitutional, information-law, criminal-law, and comparative-law perspectives. The rapid digitalization of public administration, finance, education, healthcare, and entrepreneurship has increased dependence on information systems while also intensifying the risks posed by phishing, malware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, personal data breaches, and artificial intelligence-assisted manipulation. The study analyzes the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Law No. ZRU-764 “On Cybersecurity,” Law No. ZRU547 “On Personal Data,” relevant information legislation, the Budapest Convention model, the NIS2 Directive, internationalstandards, and academic literature. The findings demonstrate that Uzbekistan has established the principal institutional and legal foundations of cybersecurity. However, risk-based incident reporting, public–private cooperation, liability for cross-border incidents, AIassisted cyberattacks, independent auditing, the rights of persons affected by data breaches, and compensation mechanisms remain insufficiently defined. Accordingly, the article proposes a five-stage legal mechanism integrating identification, prevention, monitoring, response, and accountability.