Secure-In-Mind-Institute's podcast

In this “Secure In Mind” episode, it was a privilege to welcome John W.H. Denton to the podcast for a second time. John is the Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce and with him we discussed the WTO, the World Bank, risk, digitisation, a secure digital ecosystem, and more.

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, we are honoured to welcome Canadian Senator Vernon White, who shares with us his perspective on security, based on his policing, political and strategic expertise So, the war on drugs is a complete success, isn’t it? Well… all one has to do, if they are not privy to this darker part of our world, is to jump on google, plug in “cartel violence” or “drug seizure record” or “[insert drug here] epidemic” and you’ll likely come to the conclusion that the resounding answer is a big, fat “no”. A new strategic approach to fight drug trafficking If you want a reality slap in the face from a guy who has fought to keep his streets safe, this is for you. Make no mistake, if you’re a cop in a city drowning in drugs, the death, pain, violence and other associated ills arising from the chasing of profitable dragons would be downright horrific and dauntingly complex to address. Killing kingpins – doesn’t work. The cartels splinter and someone is always going to reach for the crown. Telling kids to not do drugs – doesn’t work. It’s all good and well for politicians with no experience of scraping a teenager off the street because yes, they were dumb, but no, they weren’t a bad person and certainly didn’t deserve to die because the apparent adults in charge were too conservative to give rational thought and reality a go. Throwing small-time users into the incarceration merry-go-round – doesn’t work. Legalizing everything and leaving it to fate – doesn’t work. The situation is highly complex and requires less knee-jerk, more multi-layered interventions that will take decades to realize benefits even if they manage to pass the political smell test. So, a massive kudos to people like Senator Vernon White, who is fighting for a more rational approach to success. My discussion with the Senator highlighted the shortcomings and a feasible, multi-pronged approach aimed at tackling the illegal drug trade and its associated ills; and he should know more than most. His background as a police officer in Canada, an International Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and now a Senator in Canada lends a lot of weight to his arguments that we aren’t facing the reality of the drugs trade in a successful manner. We covered a broad range of interrelated topics which, although not being strictly tech- nor cyber-related, have a deep and direct impact on the security and safety of us all, predominantly drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism – and their correlation. Specifically, Vern shared with us a new vision on Canada’s efforts to fight illegal drug trafficking, an approach focused on helping and reducing the demand rather than focusing merely on the supply side, following globally recognized models in this respect, namely Switzerland and, partially and arguably, Portugal. The final, broader aim encompasses the interest and safety of entire communities, being those strategies targeted at combating organized crime – both national and international -, society degradation, the spreading of terrorism, death and illegality The rise in violence & crime and its correlation to the lucrative drug market Canada has progressively witnessed a steady rise in organized crime, gang violence and guerrillas, all vying to gain control over the prosperous drug trafficking market, a situation that prompted the administration to consider an international trade retaliation policy towards offshore countries that illegally introduce drug precursors on their national soil. As for crime and terrorism, the link is easy to identify, and in this respect, Vern highlights the importance of strengthening the intelligence and policy communities’ ties with international allies and partners, to share field-relevant information and best practices. Finally, we discuss the relationship between Canada and the EU – supported by some real cooperation cases – on the powers of dark web, the lack – and need – of education among young generations and the blurred line between privacy and security for protection and defense purposes. The Secure in Mind Project Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale. There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate. If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations. Nick Kelly Bio Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you: a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments, collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, we discuss with Steve Korns, Director for Cyber Operations at the US Cyber Command, the US Federal approach to national security and defence through the protection of citizen information The cyber security and data protection landscape, as we all know, is dramatically and relentlessly changing. Our guest today, Steve Korns, has been, and continues to be, one of the main actors on stage and will explore with us the most important shifts in focuses and efforts as for the Federal Government activity within the cyber sphere. Steve has an impressive military and private sector background, holding positions as CTO & Director for Cybersecurity for important conglomerates, as well as being a former US Air Force Coronel and Chief of Staff at the US Department of Homeland Security (a division of the US National Cyber Security Centre). In our conversation, we covered all kinds of topics, from Web 3.0 to Federal Government commitment as for IT Security, from IoT to Blockchain and Risk Management. National security, military and defence in the US We explore the construction of the US Cyber Command, which represented the first cyber initiative pulling together different teams to construct an overall strategy and embracing the new offence & defence approach to the cybersecurity world. We then compare its scope of action with the established National Security Agency in order to achieve a broader picture of the state of the art concerning intelligence collaboration and international network cooperation. Finally, we had a critical but surprising look at the Federal Government’s position as for the budgeting, resources, support and policy allocated to IT Security and Data Protection. Last but not least, we investigate how business entities within the private sector can improve their risk assessment, classification and management techniques. The Secure in Mind Project Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale. There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate. If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations. Nick Kelly Bio Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you: a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments, collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

Let me introduce you to Tor Ekeland, the federal criminal defence attorney who fights for hacker justice in the US We started our conversation from the time Tor moved from his routine and not-so-exciting role as a Corporate Lawyer to what was – evidently – his true calling: becoming a criminal defence lawyer representing defendants on trial. The joys of US Computer Law Tor is one of the few lawyers the press turns to when in need of a commentary on internet law and all of its associated impacts given his experience in technology law, Intellectual Property rights and regulatory frameworks. We discussed the relation between cyber and law in depth, starting from the Bill of Rights’ role in protecting citizens’ privacy by limiting government intrusion to a critical analysis of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act – CFAA – and its unveiled misuse. We negotiated the tough terrain of the Computer Law mandate and its ongoing pressure on common and criminal laws. To conclude our chat on the “fairness” of justice – and on the US Criminal Justice system in particular – we took into account the power of information control, the influencing role of social media, the first steps towards stronger data protection accountability – think GDPR – and the controversial issue of online web search reading and storage – talk about privacy. An overview of Tor’s intriguing and multifaceted cases Over the course of his remarkable career, Tor has managed to follow some of the most complex and controversial cases in the history of computer criminal law, and he was more than willing to share some first-hand details with us. We examined the case of Laurie Love in all its intricacy and complexion. The case was of an alleged UK hacker risking extradition for alleged intrusions into the US government and federal agency computers to steal massive quantities of confidential data, thus violating CFAA. We then moved on to Aaron Swartz case, which made history for the disproportionality of its prosecution and its tragic end. In fact, Swartz, a true PC pioneer, innovator and Internet hacktivist, was charged with 11 CFAA violations and state breaking-and-entering charges, leading to a major political protest against the US Department of Justice after the suspect’s heart-breaking suicide on the trial’s eve. Finally, we discussed some of the cases Tor is currently working on, including Daniel Hale’s “Theft of government property” felony charge according to the Espionage Act, pointing to his unauthorised access of a protected PC from which secret data concerning the US military and attack strategies were allegedly leaked to press sources. To discover how these cases ended up and more about Tor’s experience in this field, tune in and perhaps ponder this question: what constitutes a felony charge and how should the law meet the rapidly changing environment of our time? The Secure in Mind Project Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale. There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate. If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations. Nick Kelly Bio Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you: a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments, collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

The state of the art in cyber security, surveillance, politics and economies across the EU, in emerging markets and beyond. Nick Kelly and Roberto Capocelli talk about this and more in this episode of the podcast This “Secure in Mind” podcast episode sees Nick Kelly and Roberto Capocelli have a very open, fairly high level discourse about the state of cyber security, surveillance, politics and economies throughout EU, emerging markets and beyond. Less open warfare, and more open and constructive dialogue I’ve known Roberto for some time now and always thoroughly enjoy our interactions as we agree and disagree yet always communicate openly. Roberto’s approach to discussing hard topics is exactly what the world needs – less open warfare on the right or left, and more open and constructive dialogue. Roberto Capocelli is a journalist specialized in international relations and economics. He started out as a freelance reporter in 2002, traveling to the West Bank and Gaza during the Second Intifada uprising. Roberto has traveled and worked in several countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, the UK and Colombia, where he worked as a human rights officer for the NGO Peace Brigades International. After this experience, he produced and filmed a documentary on gold mining in Colombia. In 2012, he worked as a political reporter covering Italian politics. In the same year, Roberto received an award from the newspaper La Repubblica and was selected to attend the video journalism school, La Repubblica Academy. Additionally, in 2014 he worked as a public information officer for the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2015 he moved to New York City on a Fulbright scholarship. Roberto holds an MA in journalism from the City University of New York, a master’s degree in communication from the University of Rome La Sapienza, and a postgraduate specialization in criminology. Correction note During the podcast, I incorrectly mused that the EU President was possibly board of director of a number of banks in Luxembourg. He was actually the Prime Minister of Luxembourg at the time when many of the country’s tax avoidance laws were put in place. Thus, when in 2014 as the President of the European Union he made the following comment “try to put some morality, some ethics, into the European tax landscape” is was a no-brainer for people to see a bit of a disconnect from diplomatic discourse to historical action. For further details, see here or here. The Secure in Mind project Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale. There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate. If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations. Nick Kelly Bio Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.