DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: CONFRONTING CYBER-THREATS AT HOME AND ABROAD

In recent years, the cybersecurity of elections and democracy has emerged as a key issue both at home and abroad. Recent examples make the urgency of this issue clear: the 2017 Presidential elections in Kenya were declared invalid amidst allegations of problems with the electoral commission's databases and computers; Estonia's widely respected identity card system, which is used for i-voting in elections and access to government services, was found to be susceptible to identity theft in 2016; and perhaps the most discussed current cybersecurity issue revolves around Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election.

While Canada's democratic institutions may appear to be relatively immune to cybersecurity issues, with elections that feature paper ballots counted by hand and resulted phoned in to returning offices, Canada's Communications Security Establishment (2017) recently outlined a number of the major perceived threats to Canadian elections, including data privacy and media manipulation. In response to these challenges, the issue of cybersecurity and democratic institutions was featured as a priority in the 2018 Canadian budget (Brewster, 2018).

Drawing on these important threats to Canadian security, this workshop seeks to address three main questions related to cybersecurity and the defence of democracies in Canada and abroad:

1) What are the major security threats posed by new and emerging technologies to Canada's democratic institutions, including to government, political parties, election administrators, and the media? How can Canada preserve electoral integrity in the face of foreign interference facilitated by technology, including social media?

2) What solutions to these threats have been tested? What have been the results for safeguarding elections against attacks and preserving voter privacy, political trust, and overall democratic legitimacy?

3) What is the appropriate role for Canada's defence community in combating these threats at home? When is intervention necessary, and at what level?

This workshop and the related outputs will address how the cybersecurity of elections and democracy may be achieved. It is relevant to academic, policy and industry, especially in the lead-up to the 2019 Canadian federal election.

Registration: $20 which covers lunch. Questions? Please contact Holly-Ann.Garnett@rmc-cmr.ca

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