Cyber Wars

Digital disinformation presents a mounting threat to, and challenge for, liberal democracies. Global events like Brexit, electoral interference, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have made the abstract threat of digital disinformation into a distinct reality. The shifting global balance of power, characterized by growing multipolarity, is unfolding alongside the expansion of tools, strategies, and spaces for adversarial states and non-state actors to expand their influence, disrupt multilateral diplomacy, threaten liberal democratic norms and values, and de-legitimize a rules-based global order. 

This interdisciplinary workshop will help to bring together awareness among the academic community, industry, civil society, and government, outlining and assessing the evolving threat of digital disinformation while also providing direction and guidance on how to protect liberal democracies like Canada from weaponized digital disinformation. 

Nate Cardozo, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Encryption is legal in the Five Eyes countries, thanks to our victory in what’s come to be known as the Crypto Wars of the 1990s. Computer security research is increasingly viewed as a boon rather than a scourge. But time is a circle and once again, law enforcement and policy makers around the world are calling for all that to change. In this presentation, I will discuss in brief the history of the first Crypto Wars, and the state of the law in 2018.