CrySP Speaker Series on Privacy

This speaker series is made possible by an anonymous charitable donation in memory of cypherpunks and privacy advocates Len Sassaman, Hugh Daniel, Hal Finney, and Caspar Bowden.

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Cybersecurity and the Protection of Dissent

Glencora Borradaile, Oregon State University

[Download (MP4)] [View on Youtube]

October 4, 2021 1:30pm, in Zoom

Abstract

Privacy enhancing technologies combat the creep of mass surveillance, but they are often first protecting those who are susceptible to targeted surveillance. This talk will look at a history of surveillance-enabled suppression of social movements up to the modern era. We will delve into the digital security needs of contemporary activists and their responses to a complex landscape of digital security threats and defenses.

Bio

Glencora Borradaile is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Programs in Engineering at Oregon State University. They are on the advisory board of the Civil Liberties Defense Center (https://cldc.org/), where they helped initiate and continue to build the Digital Security Program (https://cldc.org/security/) to support activists and their lawyers. They have initiated a research program whose mission is to support the digital needs of activists, and ensure that everyone can communicate freely and safely, regardless of their identity. They are the author of the open book Defend Dissent: Digital Suppression and Cryptographic Defense of Social Movements (https://open.oregonstate.education/defenddissent/). Glencora has a B.Sc. in applied mathematics from the University of Western Ontario (2002) and a Ph.D. in computer science from Brown University (2008), and held a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo before joining Oregon State University.