Protecting data in wartime

Do we need a new world wide web for the new geopolitical landscape?  A “Cold War 2” as one of our guests called it. A war where countries are shooting digital bullets. 
 
The war in Ukraine is proving to be a real-time lab study of staying one step ahead of the hackers and finding ways to protect and preserve research data. It has highlighted the need for the global academic community to establish a secure scientific communication channel with all the necessary encryption to ensure the integrity of research. 

And we have seen the need to collect, collate, and protect information that may be needed to prove wartime atrocities. 

Guests on this podcast:

• Natalia Otrishchenko, from the Center for Urban History, in Lviv in Ukraine.
  
  
• David Shipley, co-founder of Beauceron Security in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
  
  
• N. Asokan, a professor of computer science & director of the Cybersecurity & Privacy Institute at the University of Waterloo.
  
  (Though we certainly cannot prove anything malicious, as soon as we started discussing and prepping this podcast series a few weeks ago, our original platform crashed for several days. More likely a coincidence – but the timing did get us thinking!)

Music from freesound.org 

We are looking for sponsors to help us keep this podcasts alive and to do what we can to raise awareness of the challenges facing the Ukrainian research community and academic institutions. Send a note to mspear@genomealberta.ca and we will talk about how  you can contribute.