CANARIE Summit 2019

Dr. Barb Carra

President and CEO, Cybera

Dr. Barb Carra is the President and CEO for Cybera, a technology-neutral organization responsible for driving Alberta’s economic growth through the use of digital technology. She is a respected leader and collaborative partner within Canada’s research, education and innovation landscape.

With a PhD in applied research, spatial statistics and data modeling, Barb has over a decade of experience in data analytics and policy, which allows her to act as a bridge between research and technical domains. That insight has proved vital to Cybera, which frequently acts as a steward and advocate for Alberta research and data-driven decisions. Barb spearheaded the development of Cybera’s policy, strategic and operational initiatives, including the ShareIT procurement program and Cybera’s new cybersecurity portfolio.

Wednesday, October 2 at 10:30 AM – Securing the Academy

It’s become a cliché to say that cybersecurity is a team sport, but this session will bring the cliché to life by highlighting four collaborative higher education cybersecurity projects. You’ll learn about the goals, status and intended outcomes of the Joint Security Project, the NREN SIEM Security Project, the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre Project, and the CUCCIO benchmarking project. together with a view of how these initiatives complement each other and set the stage for future collaborative cybersecurity projects among the higher education community.

Andrew Dunbar

Vice President of Security Engineering and IT, Shopify

Andrew Dunbar is the VP of Security Engineering and IT at Shopify. In his current role, he leads the team responsible for safeguarding the 820,000+ merchants on the Shopify platform, educating all employees on the best security practices, and ensuring that Shopify implements innovative security techniques to meet the changing needs of commerce globally. Prior to joining Shopify, he worked as an IT Security Specialist and Programming Analyst for Global Affairs Canada (formerly known as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development).

Tuesday, October 1 at 4:00 PM – Cybersecurity at a Global Scale

Shopify is one of Canada’s digital stars, a global powerhouse in e-commerce fuelled by a creative and dedicated team. But the cybersecurity challenges are constant, and must be managed in an environment supporting over 800,000 businesses that rely on the Shopify platform. Andrew Dunbar from Shopify will describe the key cybersecurity challenges facing the organization, how it brought a team together to create and implement its cybersecurity strategy, and how it continues to strengthen its cybersecurity posture to support its global client base. Andrew will also discuss lessons learned that can be applied to other organizations managing cybersecurity in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.

Jim Ghadbane

President and CEO, CANARIE

Jim Ghadbane was appointed President and CEO of CANARIE in 2013, after joining the organization as Chief Technology Officer in 2010. Jim’s leadership, technical expertise and focus on stakeholder needs support an increased impact and relevance of CANARIE programs and services in Canada’s public and private sectors.

Nationally, Jim works to strengthen the governance, collaborative operation, and evolution of Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). Internationally, Jim works with global colleagues on the NREN CEO Forum to guide the evolution of the global network of research and education network.

Wednesday, October 2 at 10:30 AM – Securing the Academy

It’s become a cliché to say that cybersecurity is a team sport, but this session will bring the cliché to life by highlighting three collaborative higher education cybersecurity projects. You’ll learn about the goals, status and intended outcomes of the Joint Security Project, the NREN SIEM Security Project, the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre Project, and the CUCCIO benchmarking project, together with a view of how these initiatives complement each other and set the stage for future collaborative cybersecurity projects among the higher education community.

Jorge Gonzalez-Outeiriño

Director of Infrastructure and Information Security, Wilfrid Laurier University

Jorge Gonzalez-Outeiriño is the Director of Infrastructure and Information Security at Wilfrid Laurier University. He leads the team of technical professionals managing all matters related to IT Infrastructure and the University’s Information Security program Jorge has more than 15 years of experience in technical and management positions at different universities and research centres in Canada and the United States. Jorge joined Laurier in 2016. Since then, some of his major achievements include the development of the Laurier Information Security program, and the rearchitecture and technology upgrade of the Laurier networks.

Wednesday, October 2 at 10:30 AM – Securing the Academy

It’s become a cliché to say that cybersecurity is a team sport, but this session will bring the cliché to life by highlighting three collaborative higher education cybersecurity projects. You’ll learn about the goals, status and intended outcomes of the Joint Security Project, the NREN SIEM Security Project, the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre Project, and the CUCCIO benchmarking project, together with a view of how these initiatives complement each other and set the stage for future collaborative cybersecurity projects among the higher education community.

Tyson Johnson

Chief Operating Officer, CyberNB

Tyson has worked in both the public and private sectors over the course of his career.  Starting in the Federal civil service, Tyson developed hands-on experience across the entire spectrum of issues facing Canada’s foreign and domestic threats.  He worked closely with government agencies in Canada and abroad to collaborate and achieve successful outcomes.

After departing the Government of Canada, Tyson spent the next number of years building and supporting enterprise risk management programs for multinational organizations in both financial services and electronics manufacturing.

As COO at CyberNB since 2016, Tyson and his team work with business, academia and government to increase the cyber talent pipeline, foster technical innovation, and support business growth for participants in the CyberNB ecosystem.

Wednesday, October 2 at 1:30PM – Resilience in a Digital World: From Citizen, to Corporation, to Country

The ability of a nation to ensure operational resilience in a digital world is dependant on a number of key stakeholders. Responsibilities lie with civil society, industry, academic institutions and governments, working within a collaborative framework that strengthens resiliency. This powerful framework supports the development of a digitally aware citizenry, a cohort of diverse cybersecurity talent, and a robust product pipeline that embraces security by design. Governments have a critical role to play by applying the concept of sovereign technology to critical infrastructure supply chains. Ultimately, the ability for all stakeholders to collaborate and work together will be the true measure of resilience in a digital world.

Samy Kamkar

Hacker, Whistleblower, Entrepreneur

Samy Kamkar is an independent security researcher, best known for creating The MySpace worm, the fastest spreading virus of all time. His open source software, hardware and research highlights the insecurities and privacy implications in everyday technologies, from the Evercookie which produces virtually immutable respawning cookies, to SkyJack, a drone that wirelessly hijacks and autonomously controls other drones. His work has been cited by the NSA, triggered hearings on Capitol Hill, and has been the basis for security advancements across virtually all major web browsers, smartphones, and other technologies.

Tuesday, October 1 at 9:45 AM – From Black Hat to White Hat

Samy Kamkar’s journey in cyberspace started when he was just a child and was himself the victim of hackers. This sparked both fear and excitement, prompting Samy to closely study digital technologies and then dive headfirst into the hacker universe with the creation of the “myspace worm”, the fastest growing computer virus ever. The lessons of that experience (and a visit from the Secret Service) turned Samy towards White Hat activities, examining the roles and methods of today’s cybercriminals. Now a White Hat hacker, Samy will discuss the future of cyberattacks and exploitation, and provide a fascinating look into the new research that criminals, governments and researchers are producing to compromise critical infrastructures and data stores.

Dr. Jonathan Kelly

Director, Space & Terrestrial Autonomous Robotic Systems (STARS) Laboratory and Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), University of Toronto

Dr. Jonathan Kelly is Dean’s Catalyst Professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and the Director of the Space & Terrestrial Autonomous Robotic Systems (STARS) Laboratory. Before joining the University of Toronto, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Kelly received his PhD degree from the University of Southern California, where his dissertation work focused on sensor fusion for robust robot navigation. Prior to graduate school, he was a software engineer at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal. His research interests lie primarily in the areas of estimation and machine learning for robot navigation, mapping, and manipulation tasks. He is also deeply committed to the development of open source robotics tools and to the design of reliable and reusable robotics software.

Tuesday, October 1 at 11:15 AM – Cybersecurity and Embodied Agents: What, Me Worry?

Cybersecurity is already a major concern – vulnerabilities in fixed infrastructure continue to be discovered and exploited and this trend shows no signs of slowing. For now, our laptops don’t walk around all by themselves, but this is set to change in the near future as intelligent, embodied agents finally move out of laboratories and into our human spaces. What do self-driving cars, delivery drones, and domestic service robots mean for cybersecurity? In this talk Jonathan will argue that malicious acts by hackers are only one part of the (potential) problem, and perhaps not even the first thing we should worry about. The bigger issue may be unforeseen “corner cases” hiding within the vast complexity of the autonomous systems we are about to deploy; even well-intentioned human actors might inadvertently cause a breach and trigger a disaster. Jonathan will discuss these challenges and offer thoughts on ways we can mitigate some of these risks.

Kris Klein

Privacy Lawyer, nNovation LLP

Kris Klein, CIPP/C, CIPM and FIP, is a partner at his boutique firm, nNovation LLP, and a part-time professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. He has more than two decades of public and private sector experience in the federal regulatory arena in Canada, and is one of Canada’s leading legal experts on privacy, access to information and information security issues.

Kris has litigated and counseled extensively on federal regulatory law with a pre-eminent national firm, and for the Canada’s Department of Justice, including providing instrumental legal advice to Canada’s Privy Council Office. He has also practiced exclusively in the area of privacy law, advising the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. In that role Kris advised the Privacy Commissioner and senior officials on legal, policy and strategic issues, including on the handling of high-profile and sensitive cases, as a conference speaker, and before the media.

Tuesday, October 1 at 2:30 PM – The Ghosts of Privacy’s Past, and Predictions for the Future

As with many things, we can learn a lot about where we’re going if we take the time to study where we’ve been and what’s going on elsewhere.  This is definitely the case when it comes to how privacy is changing in Canada.  In this talk, Kris will explore where we’ve been, the genesis of privacy protections in Canada and how they worked or failed to protect us.  Through an analysis of recent case studies, Kris will explore how privacy has evolved and, finally, by looking at what is going on in the rest of the world, will do a bit of crystal ball gazing and try to predict what the future of privacy protection in Canada may look like.

Brian Lesser

Chief Information Officer, Ryerson University

Brian is Ryerson University’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). Since 1995, he has held several positions at Ryerson including manager, academic computing and assistant director, application development and support. Brian helped lead Ryerson’s move to Google Apps for Education and the renewal of the university’s online learning tools. He also helped develop Ryerson’s first identity management system, establish Ryerson’s e-learning support team and is a founding member of Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ) steering committee.

Wednesday, October 2 at 10:30 AM – Securing the Academy

It’s become a cliché to say that cybersecurity is a team sport, but this session will bring the cliché to life by highlighting three collaborative higher education cybersecurity projects. You’ll learn about the goals, status and intended outcomes of the Joint Security Project, the NREN SIEM Security Project, the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre Project, and the CUCCIO benchmarking project, together with a view of how these initiatives complement each other and set the stage for future collaborative cybersecurity projects among the higher education community.

Dr. Atty Mashatan

Founder and Director, Cybersecurity Research Lab (CRL), Ryerson University

Dr. Atty Mashatan is the founder and director of the Cybersecurity Research Lab (CRL) at Ryerson University and recognized as a leading expert in cyber risk mitigation strategies and solutions. Mashatan’s expertise at the frontlines of the global cybersecurity field was recognized by SC Magazine in 2019, when she was named one of the top five Women of Influence in Security. Through strategic collaborations with government and industry, Mashatan and the CRL seek to solve industry problems through cutting edge information security research. Formerly a Senior Information Security Consultant at CIBC with a focus on cryptography and enterprise architecture, Mashatan is a professor of information technology management at Ryerson where she is helping to train the next generation of cybersecurity experts.

Tuesday, October 1 at 1:30 PM – The Quantum Cyber Threat and What to Do About It 

Quantum computing is an emerging technology that will present significant challenges for information security. In this session, Dr. Mashatan will provide an introduction to the quantum threat, an analysis of attack scenarios and mitigation strategies, and the considerations that information security personnel must take in to account in our future quantum world.

Clive Thompson

Journalist, Author, Tech Industry Expert

A Contributing Editor for Wired and a contributor to The New York Times, Clive Thompson is a prominent technology writer, respected for longform journalism that delves into science, literature, history, and philosophy. He specializes in writing not merely about the inventors of technologies, but about how everyday people use them—often quite unpredictably. Drawing from his latest book Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World, Clive will discuss issues of privacy and cybersecurity through the lens of those who seek to disrupt them: the hacker community.

Wednesday, October 2 at 9:00AM – Why White-Hat Hackers Distrust Authority

White-hat hackers are often some of the most useful experts in fighting for the privacy of people online, and writing code to help keep our communications safe. But they’re also wildly distrustful of authority. In this talk, Clive will explain hacker psychology, their distrust of authority, and what it means for the future of cybersecurity. He’ll delve into some of the core values of hackers — like insatiable curiosity, open sharing of code, and the desire to be free from prying eyes — and show how that has put them in conflict with everyone from spy agencies to Hollywood.  Clive will also discuss how the landscape of cybersecurity has become so morally complex, where threats to digital security come not just from criminal enterprises but from western governments. Finally, Clive will show why white-hat hackers are still some of most valuable people fighting for everyday security.