Cyber Dialogue 2014 (Day 1 of 2)

Yesterday (March 30) and today (March 31), the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs of the University of Toronto convened the Cyber Dialogue 2014, the last of a series of 4 annual conferences on cyber security and governance. Informed by the motion “After Snowden, Whither Internet Freedom?“, the convention is bringing together “an influential mix of global leaders from government, civil society, academia, and private enterprise.” 

Yesterday afternoon, host and Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies Ron Deibert kicked off the event and introduced the context of this year’s Cyber Dialogue. He created a solid foundation, elucidating how social media, the cloud, and the mobile Internet facilitate profound changes of how information and communication technologies (ICTs) impact our daily lives. Based on the related exploding creation (social media and mobile Internet) and storage (cloud) of personal information, he elaborated on the Snowden revelations (including their recent Canadian episode, also covered on Crossroads), setting the frame for the upcoming one and a half days. 

The following panel discussion, moderated by renowned Canadian journalist Steve Paikin, covered issues as wide as from public to private accountability, and from institutional oversight to technological solutions, setting a common standard for all participants. The panel included

• information security guru Bruce Schneier,
• former Dean of the Kennedy School of Governance at Harvard University Joseph Nye Jr.,
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) representative Dunja Mijatovic,
• director of Local Coordination Division for the Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center Yurie Ito,
• former special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights at the Organization of American States Eduardo Bertoni,
• former member of the British Parliament and Facebook representative Richard Allan,
• member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT Gbenga Sesan.

According to the accompanying discussion on Twitter (#CD14), the highlight of Day 1 of the Cyber Dialogue 2014 was the keynote speech held after dinner by former senior counsel at the National Security Agency (NSA) and head of U.S. counterintelligence under the Director of National Intelligence Joel Brenner. Scrutinized by a wide array of critical questions, he was also confronted by former NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake.

Today, all participants will be divided into working groups covering 5 broader sub-topics:

• From Surveillance to Cyber War: What are the Limits and Impacts?
• Our Data, Security, and the Digital Commons: What are the Challenges and Opportunities?
• Building Transnational Epistemic Communities around Cyber Security.
• Towards Responsible and Transparent Data Stewardship.
• Power Shift? Governance Models for the Next Billion.

Stay tuned for the blog post on day 2 of the conference this night, when I’ll report on the proceedings in and the results of working group 1, “From Surveillance to Cyber War,” and on the wrap up of the last Cyber Dialogue from the University of Toronto.