Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for inviting me to open the conference “Kiberšahs/Cyberchess 2019”. What I would like to do over the next few minutes is to put some of the issues which you will be examining into a broader security context with an emphasis on your role within it.
There are a number of ways in which humanity has developed which now threaten our very existence. Three are particularly dangerous. Last week we heard a lot about the dramatic consequences of climate change. Whether or not we find out of this threat it’s a question.
The continued proliferation of nuclear weapons means that the Cold War era of mutually assured destruction – or MAD as it was correctly called – is not simply a matter of history. When authoritarian or unstable countries possess these weapons, then the chances of them getting into the hands of terrorists is imaginable. When nuclear limitation treaties are being abandoned and so-called “nuclear de-escalation” is actually played out in war-games, we are in a dangerous situation.
Biological risks are also underestimated. The probable continued development of biological weapons provides the possibility of accidents with devastating consequences. To this we must add the dangers of the anti-vaccination movement and the rapid decline in the effectiveness of antibiotics. Let us remember that the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918–1920 killed between 3 and 5 % of the world’s population. It is much more than the persons who were killed in the First World War.
You may wonder why I am talking about such risks at your conference. Well, the extraordinary, rapid development in ICT technology is increasingly affecting all our lives, including in these existential risk areas. Climate change can only be controlled if the whole world participates – a matter of communication. The accidental release of nuclear weapons can happen through faulty software or the incorrect interpretation of incoming signals. Controlling health issues is again a matter of communication. In other words, they are all closely linked to the essence of your conference.
The basics of technological security remain unchanged while the complexity of the tasks continues to increase. We still need to protect our networks, ensure continuity of service and data integrity. Traditional cyber-threats continue to target our communications, our provision of such essentials as financial services, electricity and water supplies. But now the combination of cyber threats and strategic communications are combining to take into a cognitive war where our resilience will be further tested. Fake news or information warfare deal with facts or their distortion. Cognitive war, on the other hand, aims deeper – that is at our interpretation and perception of these facts.
Large scale information manipulation is a kind of hacking of our hearts and minds. It is ironic that even your own technologies are becoming victims.
When the Twitter account of the CEO of Twitter is hacked and mishandled, or the opportunities provided by 5G technology are delayed by “social media wisdom”, then it is clear that we have to be more vigilant.
The quality of our information space plays a key role in defining our quality of life. Technological advancement is meant to bring us prosperity, make our lives easier, but the data harvesting and the big data is also a source for monitoring of our individuals, and also the source of manipulation of all the individuals. We have already seen how populist movements can quickly become more attractive in this new environment. When we add to this the growth of “filter bubbles”, encryption of social media and its fragmentation into like-minded groups, then it is unsurprising that what has been called the “continued influence effect” on perceptions has huge potential.
Security is an integral part of our economic well-being, our social and political structures. Therefore, if reliable and safe information and communications are matters of national security, the question arises about the role of the state. For a fragile democracy or an authoritarian regime, developing technologies can pose a serious threat. But these same technologies can equally provide also a means for the state to control its population. We see that’s already in some countries which are ruled by authoritarian regimes.
We must not fall into the trap of overregulation, censorship and the misuse of the rule of law. Techniques such as facial recognition provides us with a tool for social engineering, and if these tools fall in false hands, I would say, then, of course, the democracy and rule of law is in danger.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we return to my central theme of democracy and the protection of our common values. The digital resilience of our democratic systems is in your hands and in the hands of your many colleagues around the world. We know how hybrid threats can be developed in cyberspace. The growth of AI and machine learning will soon affect warfighting. Are we prepared to envisage machines making decisions about the life or death of human beings? Perhaps not in our societies, but these technologies are available to authoritarian regimes and even terrorist sub-states.
Democracy can only prosper in open, well-educated and informed societies. The habit of critical thinking is as important as the access to information. This is not of importance to politicians alone. It is essential for the basic freedoms and values we take for granted in our daily lives.
While technological development may not threaten our existence in the way I described at the beginning of my talk, it has an all-pervasive and increasing influence on us all. As democratic states, we have the responsibility to educate users and to teach our children critical thinking. We have to tackle privacy issues in a fair and even-handed manner, even though that itself is a huge challenge.
Of you, the professionals, we ask that you take account of the consequences of where you are heading. The decisions you make, the products and services you create and run need to be considered in the wider security context. In the era of cognitive war, reputational security is as important for business as it is for politicians. We must all make sure that we do not put our societies and states under threats through the consequences of our unintended actions which we have not meant.
The technologies we dream about, we build and we all use have not only to be safe and secure, but also responsible. ‘Responsible consequences’ – I think this is a term which this conference should take in consideration. I hope you will have a lot of discussions about the links among security, our common values and the topic of the conference “Cyberchess 2019”. Thank you very much!
