Distinguished Panel to Speak on BGF-G7 Summit Initiative May 9

Distinguished Panel to Speak on BGF-G7 Summit Initiative May 9

by | May 1, 2016 | AI World Society Summit

( May 2nd, 2016) On  May 9, The Boston Global Forum (BostonGlobalForum.org) will host a major conference on the theme of “Building Ethics Norms for Cybersecurity’’. It is part of its BGF-G7 Summit Initiative, in which internationally known experts have been participating since the start of this year. Please see  below the list of moderators and other speakers  for May 9,  along with other information about the meeting.

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A key part of the BGF’s work this year has been the Initiative, which has been convening leading scholars and business, government, technology and other leaders from around the world to seek solutions to pressing global issues involving peace, security and development. The BGF has worked with Japanese officials to craft proposals to be considered by the leaders of the G7 nations at  their summit, on May 26-27 in Japan.

The BGF’s biggest push this year has been developing “Strategies for Combating Cyberterrorism’’.  In pursuing this, most of the Initiative’s online dialogues so far this year, a major feature of the Initiative, have dealt primarily with cybersecurity. The most promising ideas from these dialogues and other BGF work have been summarized and will be reported to the national leaders meeting in Japan.

Online speakers have included David Sanger, chief  Washington Correspondent of The New York Times; Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer  of Resilient Systems; John Savage, the An Wang professor of computer science at Brown University and a BGF member; Allan Cytryn, international business cybersecurity expert,  a principal of Risk Masters International and a BGF member; Carlos Alberto Torres, the UNESCO Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education at the University of California at Los Angeles and a BGF member; Yasuhisa Kawamura, the chief spokesman for the Japanese government; Prof. J.D. Bindenagel, the Henry Kissinger Professor for Governance and International Security, at the University of Bonn; Prof. Matthew Smith, professor of computer science at  the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn, and Ezra Vogel, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard, a world-renown expert on East Asia and a BGF member.

The cybersecurity project began last year, as BGF experts started to develop the BGF’s “Ethics Code for Cyber Peace and Security.’’

Ryan Maness,  Visiting Fellow for Security and Resilience Studies in the Department of political science at Northeastern University, will present a report on the BGF-G7 Summit Initiative’s cybersecurity proposals at the May 9 meeting.

Practical details of the event:

Time: 7 p.m. (EDT) May 9

Venue: Room 2, Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138

To be live-streamed at www.bostonglobalforum.org

The conference will be directly linked with participants in Tokyo and Bonn.

It will be moderated by:

  • Gov. Michael Dukakis, Co-Founder, Chairman, Boston Global Forum.

Speakers:

  • Prof.  Jose Barroso, former President of the European Union.
  • President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia, President of Club de Madrid.
  • Prof. Thomas E. Patterson, Co-Founder, Member of Board of Directors, Member of Editorial Board, Boston Global Forum; Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, Harvard Kennedy School, and acting director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School.
  • Prof.  Joseph Nye, Member of the BGF Board of Thinkers; University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard Kennedy School.
  • Prof.  Koichi Hamada, Special Adviser to  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the G7 Summit’s host.
  • Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-Founder and CEO, Boston Global Forum; Chair, International Advisory Committee, the UNESCO-UCLA  program on Global Citizenship Education.
  • Prof. John Savage, An Wang Professor of Computer Science, Brown University and BGF member.
  • Ryan Maness, Visiting Fellow of Security and Resilience Studies, Department of Political Science, Northeastern University.
  • Tomomi Inada, Chairman of Policy Research Council of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and a Member of the Japanese House of Representatives.
  • Prof.  Nazli Choucri, Professor of Political Science, MIT; Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD).
  • Prof. Derek Reveron, Professor of National Security Affairs and the EMC Informationist Chair at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I
  • Prof. Chris Demchak, RADM Grace M. Hopper Chair of Cybersecurity and Co-Director of the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies, at the U.S. Naval War College

For more information on the meeting, including about attending it, please send queries to: [email protected]

Two men sentenced for using malware in massive thefts

by | May 1, 2016 | AI World Society Summit

( May 2nd, 2016) The Guardian reports that the Russian creator of a computer program that let cybercriminals infect millions of computers and drain bank accounts in several countries has been sentenced to serve nine and half years in a U.S. prison.

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Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, 27, the inventor of  the malicious SpyEye, pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud in January 2014 after reaching a deal with prosecutors.

SpyEye infected more than 50 million computers, causing nearly $1 billion in damage to individuals and financial institutions.

A second man, Hamza Bendelladj, a 27-year-old Algerian was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors said he sold versions of SpyEye online and used the malware to steal financial information.

The Guardian reported that “SpyEye was a type of Trojan virus that secretly implanted itself on victims’ computers to steal sensitive information, including bank account credentials, credit card information, passwords and PINs. Once it took over a computer, it allowed hackers to trick victims into surrendering personal information — including data-grabbing and fake bank account pages. The information was relayed to a command and control server to be used to access victim accounts.’’

NATO eyes stepping up Black Sea forces

by | May 1, 2016 | Initiative

( May 2nd, 2016) As concerns grow about Russian revanchism, three NATO members — Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania — may help expand NATO’s presence in and around the Black Sea. Russia has major forces there, including in Ukraine’s Crimea, which Russian President President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to occupy as part of his ongoing but undeclared war with Ukraine.

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow speaks during a news conference in Tbilisi, January 30, 2015. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

NATO has been working on a broader strategy to deter Russia for aggression against its neighbors.

The Black Sea is strategically very important for East and West given its energy reserves and closeness to the Middle East.

“There are some very valuable discussions under way among the allies who live on the Black Sea … of more closely integrating their naval forces and operations,” NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said in a visit to Sofia, mentioning the three NATO allies.

NATO worries about a Russian strategy to try to block NATO from moving its military forces by positioning Russian surface-to-air missile batteries and anti-ship missiles in Kaliningrad (its enclave on the Baltic), the Black Sea and in Syria.

Pentagon starts ‘cyberbombing’ ISIS

by | Apr 30, 2016 | Initiative

( May 2nd, 2016) The Pentagon’s Cyber Command has started a new online campaign against ISIS to disrupt its operations by sowing mistrust and confusion among the leaders of the Islamic terrorist group and in so doing disrupt their military operations.

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Technewsworld reports that among other things, the plan is to disrupt the ability of ISIS leaders “to pay their soldiers, execute operational orders, recruit new fighters and communicate with each other.’’

The plan amounts to dropping cyberbombs on the enemy, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work told The New York Times, which the U.S. has never done before in such a large-scale battlefield environment.

U.S. military challenges nations seeking to restrict navigation rights

by | Apr 30, 2016 | Initiative

( May 2nd, 2016) A U.S. Defense Department report says that the U.S. military conducted “freedom of navigation” operations against 13 countries last year, including several to challenge China’s claims in the South and East China seas. Chinese expansion in those seas poses the most threatening challenge to international freedom of navigation. Some 30 percent of world trade runs through the South China Sea, over which China seeks hegemony.

Chinese dredging vessels are purportedly seen in the waters around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in this still image from video taken by a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft provided by the United States Navy May 21, 2015. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters

The operations involve sending U.S. Navy ships and military aircraft where other nations have tried to limit access. The aim is to show that the international community does not accept such restrictions.