October was Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a time for governments and industry to build public awareness of the importance of cybersecurity and cyber “hygiene.” In Canada, the campaign’s theme this year was “Life Happens Online,” recognizing that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, cyberthreats have grown in tandem with screen time.
These threats include mis- and disinformation campaigns, phishing, online gender-based violence, hate speech and extremist propaganda. Children are particularly vulnerable. Online platforms and smart devices collect troves of personal information, often without clear consent, which poses serious privacy and security risks.
Growing concerns about online surveillance, data breaches and other cyberthreats have eroded users’ trust in the internet and underscored the need for better protections in the digital space.
Below is a compilation of research and analysis by CIGI experts exploring our online vulnerabilities and proposing potential solutions.
Read
- Look Who’s Watching: Surveillance, Treachery and Trust Online
- Putting Our Bodies Online: The Privacy Risks of Tech Wearables
- Standards for Cybersecure IoT Devices: A Way Forward
- As Parties Build Digital Profiles of Voters, the Risk of Breaches Grows
- Governing Cyberspace during a Crisis in Trust
- Protecting Information Consumers
- Who’s Minding the Gaps? How the Shadowy World of Cyber Exploits Affects Us All
- Influence Operations and Disinformation on Social Media
- Screen Time, the Brain, Privacy and Mental Health
- New Platform, Old Problems: How TikTok Recreates the Regulatory Challenges That Came Before It
Watch
- Data Trusts – Defining What, How and Who Can Use Your Data
- Deepfakes and Digital Harms: Emerging Technologies and Gender-Based Violence
- Everything Is Connected with Dr. Laura DeNardis
- Strengthening National Security and Privacy in the Digital Era: A Discussion with Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien
- Beware Fake News
- How Surveillance Capitalism Undermines Democracy
Listen
- Beeban Kidron on Why Children Need a Safer Internet
- Angie Drobnic Holan on the Importance of Fact-checking during a Pandemic
- Naomi Klein on Entering the Tech Governance Debate
- Cory Doctorow on the True Dangers of Surveillance Capitalism
- Sasha Havlicek on Mitigating the Spread of Online Extremism
- Douglas Rushkoff on Reclaiming Our Humanity on the Internet
