Event Date: October 14, 2009 - 12:00 pm
Location: Social Sciences Building, 120 Universi
A talk by Ron Deibert, University of Toronto.
Free. Registration is not required. This event will be in English.
Ron Deibert is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, and author of 32 articles, chapters and books on issues related to technology, media and world politics. He is also a co-founder and a principal investigator of the OpenNet Initiative and the Information Warfare Monitor projects.
In his talk, Professor Deibert will outline threats to the openness of cyberspace as well as the prospects for creating norms of mutual restraint through cyberspace arms control. Cyberspace is entering a period of intense geopolitical competition and potential instability. All the great powers, including the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, are exploring or announcing plans for operational doctrines to fight and win wars in cyberspace. It has now become routine in the developing world for elections to be contested with attacks on websites and social networking platforms. Surveillance systems are widespread, dispersed, and pervasive across public and private networks. The original hope of cyberspace was to allow citizens from one side of the planet to communicate with citizens on the other side of the planet in an unfettered, open and transparent way creating the possibility of a global commons of information. Although this potential still exists, its possibilities are rapidly being eroded.