in late May 2008 a decade ago there were
many small supermarkets in Amsterdam
they were out of fresh milk this was not
because of a cow strike but because the
mobile phone network had been down in
most of netherlands for two days now
this was just after the introduction of
the first iPhone it seems forever ago
so most people didn’t even notice but
many small supermarkets and other
retailers were already using mobile data
to run their logistics and when these
things failed solid logistics no 3G no
fresh milk so this wasn’t the first time
we had big failures like that and it
wouldn’t also be the last and I won’t be
the first one to tell you how important
technology is when computer systems and
networks fails everything stops today
we’ve been very dependent on electricity
for decades but certainly over the last
15 years computers and computer networks
has become just as vital to keep us safe
healthy and of course in cat videos so
we need to be able to protect ourselves
and people around us in the places we
love and this is one of the reasons why
with a journalist friend I wrote this
book which is a free download online to
help train people to use open source
security tools to have privacy and
anonymity when you need it and to keep
your secrets I’m a digital defence
instructor and I train activists
journalists lawyers people around the
world who need to be able to keep a
secret and communicate securely to save
lives and the book is intended to help
non-technical people to be able to do
that on their own it’s a free download
in several languages and you’re also
allowed to reuse the text so if you want
to make a version for twelve-year-olds
go ahead you don’t need my permission
now to go a little bit into the problem
Europe buys the vast majority of its IT
that we run our lives on from abroad you
know us software and services Chinese
hardware not only is is costing us
something like 250 billion euros a year
which is a couple of million jobs we
don’t have
Europe it also means that by technology
that is vital to us every second of
every day but we have no control over it
we don’t know what it does on the inside
and all kinds of bad things could happen
and indeed have happened so thanks to a
series of Croatia whistleblowers of
which note the most one of the more
recent ones we know now for sure that
this stuff is being abused against us
all the time China the US many other
countries have Espina interests against
Europe and so these things are being
abused against our political and social
interests and of course there’s also a
lot of economic espionage meaning more
money more economic growth and wealth
that we don’t have in Europe so this is
one of the slides that Snowden gave us
and it shows how in this case the NSA
thinks about this stuff they have back
doors most major American IT products
are the stuff in your home but also the
stuff that you never see but they do
depend on nonetheless check out the
fresh milk for instance I’m sorry if
you’re working ITU although most of
these brands many other people at least
recognize some of them it tells us that
all these things have been backdoored by
design intentionally and that makes
buying a lot easier so collecting
information about the fact that you are
all here now with your phones listening
to me the NSA knows that now if you
watch movies on YouTube the NSA knows
this now sorry it also tells us that the
NSA with the budget of a small nation
they need some help of that but wait it
get worse it gets worse it gets worse
the NSA also makes digital weapons to
attack the systems we do try to secure
and then it loses those weapons and
other people make off with them and this
happens a couple of years ago and then
somebody turned around and turned one of
these things into a weapon and took down
40 hospitals in the UK amongst other
things
that was in May of 2017 a month later
another computer virus also based on
this lost weapons toolkit took out among
other things a big chunk of the
container capacity in Rotterdam Harbor
which is one of the biggest harbors on
this side of the planet and that meant
you have no new car parts no new
clothing no feedstocks for those cows
that make the milk for you this brings
us the stuff that we need to survive so
the NSA’s wish in this case to spy on
the world apparently must be for
economic and political reasons has made
us all a lot less safe and this is a
very big problem
regrettably none of all the spying has
done the thing it was supposed to do
which is prevent terrorist incidents
zero effect this is research by both the
US Congress and several other academic
institutions so it’s not doing what it’s
supposed to do is just causing lots of
other problems now despite all of this
now being out you know it’s been in many
newspapers for a couple of years now
it’s no longer a secret everybody knows
that doesn’t mean that it stops in fact
the recent US government that sort of
doubled down on the policy of collect
everything and we’ll sort it out later
and in order to collect everything we
need everything to be insecure and then
the fact that we’re really secure well
that’s just bad luck for us also thanks
to Snowden we know what does work and
that gives us the path forward to get
out of this big hole very so there is
light at the end of the Sun and that’s
what we need to work on so we know it
works
we need strong crypto systems and we
need new kinds of computers
that are billed in Europe for us ideally
by us as close as possible to us on sort
of the open source philosophy where the
computer you own that is in your home or
in the hospital you visit is a
accountable to you as an end user not to
some American commercial company and/or
the NSA now it may seem like a big task
to start using a completely new computer
that today doesn’t even exist yet and
that you’ve never seen and it you’ve
never used but I’m absolutely certain
that all of you can use learn to use
this new computer because you all have
one of these and they didn’t exist ten
years ago
and you’re all using those and nobody
got a special course in it so it’s
completely obvious that you all can
learn to use a new computer that didn’t
exist ten years ago because you already
did it so never underestimate your
ability to learn new things when it
comes to things like computers or many
other areas now some people might say
well if we have all these new computers
that are different from the other ones
then it won’t work with all the other
stuff and I call BS on that and my proof
is the internet which is billions of
computers produced by tens of thousands
of different companies and it all works
together why because of open standards
like a common language that makes
everything talk to each other even if
different parties make it now for the
techies I know the internet really looks
like this but let’s keep that between us
so if there’s lots of fires of course we
should buy some fire trucks and it’s
great if fire trucks come screeching
down the road if there is a fire but
that is after the fact and this is what
many security products like virus
scanners and other things do you know
it’s solving the problem and it’s
already exploded in your face if the
problem is that there are a lot of fires
maybe teach people not to smoke in bed
and other forms of knowledge and
behavioral change that allows them to
make slightly smarter choices and not
get into trouble Marylyn fees
non-smoking debt so I have deep faith in
the idea that knowledge is power and
that knowledge empowers people and that
is why I teach digital self defense
it’s not about the boxes and the
technology products it’s about the
knowledge that people have in their
heads and that they share with others
that allows them to protect themselves
and protect people around them so
everybody can contribute to this problem
and we’re gonna need everybody so if
you’re a software engineer amazing you
can work you know on making the software
better if you’re a graphics person maybe
you can make it more shiny and more
beautiful if you’re a linguist help
translate documents if you’re a writer
you can maybe make them make them make
them better if you’re marketeer we need
to be made to make this aspirational for
people even sexy hopefully if your
teacher we’re going to need a lot of
teachers so everybody can contribute a
little bit to this problem now it may
seem that taking on the spying powers of
global superpowers is a very daunting
task but we should never shy away from
the daunting task that’s what really you
know makes things worthwhile to do so I
have to say that we can do this and I
invite you to be part of that solution
we can do this together [Applause]
many small supermarkets in Amsterdam
they were out of fresh milk this was not
because of a cow strike but because the
mobile phone network had been down in
most of netherlands for two days now
this was just after the introduction of
the first iPhone it seems forever ago
so most people didn’t even notice but
many small supermarkets and other
retailers were already using mobile data
to run their logistics and when these
things failed solid logistics no 3G no
fresh milk so this wasn’t the first time
we had big failures like that and it
wouldn’t also be the last and I won’t be
the first one to tell you how important
technology is when computer systems and
networks fails everything stops today
we’ve been very dependent on electricity
for decades but certainly over the last
15 years computers and computer networks
has become just as vital to keep us safe
healthy and of course in cat videos so
we need to be able to protect ourselves
and people around us in the places we
love and this is one of the reasons why
with a journalist friend I wrote this
book which is a free download online to
help train people to use open source
security tools to have privacy and
anonymity when you need it and to keep
your secrets I’m a digital defence
instructor and I train activists
journalists lawyers people around the
world who need to be able to keep a
secret and communicate securely to save
lives and the book is intended to help
non-technical people to be able to do
that on their own it’s a free download
in several languages and you’re also
allowed to reuse the text so if you want
to make a version for twelve-year-olds
go ahead you don’t need my permission
now to go a little bit into the problem
Europe buys the vast majority of its IT
that we run our lives on from abroad you
know us software and services Chinese
hardware not only is is costing us
something like 250 billion euros a year
which is a couple of million jobs we
don’t have
Europe it also means that by technology
that is vital to us every second of
every day but we have no control over it
we don’t know what it does on the inside
and all kinds of bad things could happen
and indeed have happened so thanks to a
series of Croatia whistleblowers of
which note the most one of the more
recent ones we know now for sure that
this stuff is being abused against us
all the time China the US many other
countries have Espina interests against
Europe and so these things are being
abused against our political and social
interests and of course there’s also a
lot of economic espionage meaning more
money more economic growth and wealth
that we don’t have in Europe so this is
one of the slides that Snowden gave us
and it shows how in this case the NSA
thinks about this stuff they have back
doors most major American IT products
are the stuff in your home but also the
stuff that you never see but they do
depend on nonetheless check out the
fresh milk for instance I’m sorry if
you’re working ITU although most of
these brands many other people at least
recognize some of them it tells us that
all these things have been backdoored by
design intentionally and that makes
buying a lot easier so collecting
information about the fact that you are
all here now with your phones listening
to me the NSA knows that now if you
watch movies on YouTube the NSA knows
this now sorry it also tells us that the
NSA with the budget of a small nation
they need some help of that but wait it
get worse it gets worse it gets worse
the NSA also makes digital weapons to
attack the systems we do try to secure
and then it loses those weapons and
other people make off with them and this
happens a couple of years ago and then
somebody turned around and turned one of
these things into a weapon and took down
40 hospitals in the UK amongst other
things
that was in May of 2017 a month later
another computer virus also based on
this lost weapons toolkit took out among
other things a big chunk of the
container capacity in Rotterdam Harbor
which is one of the biggest harbors on
this side of the planet and that meant
you have no new car parts no new
clothing no feedstocks for those cows
that make the milk for you this brings
us the stuff that we need to survive so
the NSA’s wish in this case to spy on
the world apparently must be for
economic and political reasons has made
us all a lot less safe and this is a
very big problem
regrettably none of all the spying has
done the thing it was supposed to do
which is prevent terrorist incidents
zero effect this is research by both the
US Congress and several other academic
institutions so it’s not doing what it’s
supposed to do is just causing lots of
other problems now despite all of this
now being out you know it’s been in many
newspapers for a couple of years now
it’s no longer a secret everybody knows
that doesn’t mean that it stops in fact
the recent US government that sort of
doubled down on the policy of collect
everything and we’ll sort it out later
and in order to collect everything we
need everything to be insecure and then
the fact that we’re really secure well
that’s just bad luck for us also thanks
to Snowden we know what does work and
that gives us the path forward to get
out of this big hole very so there is
light at the end of the Sun and that’s
what we need to work on so we know it
works
we need strong crypto systems and we
need new kinds of computers
that are billed in Europe for us ideally
by us as close as possible to us on sort
of the open source philosophy where the
computer you own that is in your home or
in the hospital you visit is a
accountable to you as an end user not to
some American commercial company and/or
the NSA now it may seem like a big task
to start using a completely new computer
that today doesn’t even exist yet and
that you’ve never seen and it you’ve
never used but I’m absolutely certain
that all of you can use learn to use
this new computer because you all have
one of these and they didn’t exist ten
years ago
and you’re all using those and nobody
got a special course in it so it’s
completely obvious that you all can
learn to use a new computer that didn’t
exist ten years ago because you already
did it so never underestimate your
ability to learn new things when it
comes to things like computers or many
other areas now some people might say
well if we have all these new computers
that are different from the other ones
then it won’t work with all the other
stuff and I call BS on that and my proof
is the internet which is billions of
computers produced by tens of thousands
of different companies and it all works
together why because of open standards
like a common language that makes
everything talk to each other even if
different parties make it now for the
techies I know the internet really looks
like this but let’s keep that between us
so if there’s lots of fires of course we
should buy some fire trucks and it’s
great if fire trucks come screeching
down the road if there is a fire but
that is after the fact and this is what
many security products like virus
scanners and other things do you know
it’s solving the problem and it’s
already exploded in your face if the
problem is that there are a lot of fires
maybe teach people not to smoke in bed
and other forms of knowledge and
behavioral change that allows them to
make slightly smarter choices and not
get into trouble Marylyn fees
non-smoking debt so I have deep faith in
the idea that knowledge is power and
that knowledge empowers people and that
is why I teach digital self defense
it’s not about the boxes and the
technology products it’s about the
knowledge that people have in their
heads and that they share with others
that allows them to protect themselves
and protect people around them so
everybody can contribute to this problem
and we’re gonna need everybody so if
you’re a software engineer amazing you
can work you know on making the software
better if you’re a graphics person maybe
you can make it more shiny and more
beautiful if you’re a linguist help
translate documents if you’re a writer
you can maybe make them make them make
them better if you’re marketeer we need
to be made to make this aspirational for
people even sexy hopefully if your
teacher we’re going to need a lot of
teachers so everybody can contribute a
little bit to this problem now it may
seem that taking on the spying powers of
global superpowers is a very daunting
task but we should never shy away from
the daunting task that’s what really you
know makes things worthwhile to do so I
have to say that we can do this and I
invite you to be part of that solution
we can do this together [Applause]
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