Videos of IDSF panel discussions
For those who were not able to attend our live event, want to review their favorite talk or get inspired we put together videos of all recorded IDSF panel discussions here.
Our impressions section hosts web resolution images of IDSF 2020.
Please make sure to always credit the relevant photographer.
You can download the full conference review as PDF here.
Day 1
09.00 – 09.30
Welcome & Opening Session
Welcome address:
Christian Weissenburger, Director General at Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, on behalf of Federal Minister Leonore Gewessler
Margarete Schramböck, Minister at Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs
Sebastian Kurz, Federal Chancellor at Republic of Austria
Introduction:
Mariana Kühnel, Deputy Secretary General, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber / Wirtschaftskammer Österreich
Helmut Leopold, Initiator IDSF, Head of Center for Digital Safety & Security at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Keynote:
Vladimir Voronkov, Under-Secretary-General at United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT), New York
Moderator:
Martin Szelgrad, Editor in chief at Report Verlag
09.30 – 10.30
Session
Fake News – Undermining Democracy
The spread of disinformation and misinformation poses a threat to the health and security of societies. Fake news, whether to promote fake products, false guidelines, or to build public discontent continues to challenge decision making and can lead to disastrous consequence. In times of crisis such as the current Covid-19 pandemic, the volumes of disinformation has gained a new level of significance: accusations related to the spread of the disease, conspiracy theories, innumerable false reports and unsubstantiated opinions are being shared and commented on, increasingly lending to their credibility. As a result, individuals are gradually becoming less able to distinguish between real information and misinformation. This can lead to the deliberate influencing of opinions which, in turn, threatens social order and peace and endangers democratic opinion-forming processes. Governmental organizations, media enterprises, as well as individual citizens are all faced with a new set of challenges for which no suitable answers or effective countermeasures currently exist.
Today’s technical approaches still face many challenge. Individual verification of news by experts cannot be scaled up to the extent needed to cope with the ever-growing volumes of information. Additional research is needed to develop new capabilities and processes, and new forensic tools are needed to effectively combat the uncontrolled spread of disinformation while respecting social, cultural and legal norms.
This session approaches the topic from a democratic political perspective.
Speaker:
Dominika Hajdu, Research Fellow at GLOBSEC Bratislava
Miroslawa Sawiris, Research Fellow, Democracy & Resilience at GLOBSEC Bratislava
Laura Loguercio, Journalist at Pagella Politca / NTCenter
Caroline Schmidt, Security Policy Adviser at Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior
Andy Stoycheff, Director at NTCenter & Adam Smith College of Management
Host:
Ross King, Head of Competence Unit Data Science & Artificial Intelligence at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
10.40 – 11.40
Session
Fake News – The New Role of Media
The spread of disinformation and misinformation poses a threat to the health and security of societies. Fake news, whether to promote fake products, false guidelines, or to build public discontent continues to challenge decision making and can lead to disastrous consequence. In times of crisis such as the current Covid-19 pandemic, the volumes of disinformation has gained a new level of significance: accusations related to the spread of the disease, conspiracy theories, innumerable false reports and unsubstantiated opinions are being shared and commented on, increasingly lending to their credibility. As a result, individuals are gradually becoming less able to distinguish between real information and misinformation. This can lead to the deliberate influencing of opinions which, in turn, threatens social order and peace and endangers democratic opinion-forming processes. Governmental organizations, media enterprises, as well as individual citizens are all faced with a new set of challenges for which no suitable answers or effective countermeasures currently exist.
Today’s technical approaches still face many challenge. Individual verification of news by experts cannot be scaled up to the extent needed to cope with the ever-growing volumes of information. Additional research is needed to develop new capabilities and processes, and new forensic tools are needed to effectively combat the uncontrolled spread of disinformation while respecting social, cultural and legal norms.
This session explores the topic from a media and journalistic perspective.
Speaker:
Wolfgang Renner, Head of the Wiener Zeitung Academy at Wiener Zeitung
Katharina Schell, Member of the editorial board, digital innovation, media editor at APA – Austria Press Agency
Nikos Sarris, Head of technologies against disinformation at ATC Innovation Lab
Host:
Wolfgang Renner, Head of the Wiener Zeitung Academy at Wiener Zeitung
11.45 – 11.55
Keynote
Austria in Security Research - The Digital Dimension
Speaker:
Andreas Reichhardt, Vice-Minister at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism, on behalf of Federal Minister Elisabeth Köstinger
Moderator:
Martin Szelgrad, Editor in chief at Report Verlag
11.55 – 12.25
Keynote
An African Perspective on Digitalization
Speaker:
Hon. Vincent Waiswa Bagiire, The Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Information Communications Technology and National Guidance, Uganda
Moderator:
Philipp Agathonos, Diplomat, Civilian Crisis Management, CSDP Training, Peace & Security at Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs
12.30 – 13.50
Session
Digital Resilience & Complexity
Complex and distributed software systems form the nervous system of our modern society. As a consequence there is no resilient society without resilient software systems. Making software systems resilient is a demanding task as they are dependent on a wide range of techno-social systems and basic infrastructure (such as electricity, water, supply chains). They require skilled experts with a clear understanding what the capabilities of the respective system are supposed to be, how cascade failures can be averted and graceful degradation schemes could look like. This sounds easier than it is, but complex software systems show emergent behaviour which results from a broad range of modules within an organisation (and different responsibilities) and an increasing number of external services.
IDSF dedicates a session panel to this most relevant topic to discuss how to handle complexity and emergent properties of distributed software systems and the consequences for security and resilience of these systems.
Speaker:
Alexander Schatten, Senior Researcher at SBA Research
Lukas Feiler, Partner at Baker & McKenzie Diwok Hermann Petsche Rechtsanwälte LLP & Co KG
Andreas Windisch, Theoretical Physicist, AI specialist at Know-Center
Host:
Alexander Schatten, Senior Researcher at SBA Research
14.00 – 15.15
Session
Next Generation Border Management
International travel, whether for business or pleasure, has become common place. People want to move and travel freely, but they also want to be safe and secure. Fast and secure access and border controls, short queues at our airports, land borders and sea borders for passenger checks are key to high security and comfort. Well-functioning management of external borders is essential in maintaining a fully functioning Schengen area and an efficient and humane management of migration. Border security systems to protect the state and mitigate threats to its stability and the lives and properties of its citizens have become important items on the global security agenda.
Since a couple of years, we have been facing several unforeseen events: the European migrant crises, COVID-19 pandemic and post Brexit relationship are examples of the growing challenges and call for next generation border management systems. Effective and efficient checks at authorised crossing points together with seamless surveillance in between are required (EU Schengen Catalogue 2002).
In the “Next Generation Border Management” session we discuss with experts if Europe’s borders can be both open and secure to allow for the cross-border flow of legitimate trade and commerce, and secure in the sense that the national security interests of states are protected. Furthermore, we discuss how the European Commission, national authorities, large industries and research organizations commit themselves to achieving a balance between the need to maintain security against cross-border threats and the freedom of movement for persons, goods, services and commerce.
Border guards and security systems will be the central building blocks of next generation border management in a new domestic and global security architecture. This session discusses how to support them in achieving an acceptable European border management to strengthen cross-border cooperation and border surveillance in a counterterrorism context.
Speaker:
Giulio M. Mancini, Policy Officer at European Commission – DG Migration and Home Affairs
Romain Nivelle, Director at Mission to the EU of the Hauts-de-France Region
Georgios Boultadakis, Deputy R&D Director at European Dynamics Luxembourg SA
Pantelis Michalis, EU Projects Coordinator at Center for Security Studies (KEMEA)
James Ferryman, Professor at University of Reading
Host:
Andreas Kriechbaum-Zabini, Thematic Coordinator at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
15.20 – 16.30
SESSION
Advanced Biometrics for Counter Terrorism
Border security and management (BSM) is an essential capability for states in the fight against transnational crimes and in the identification of terrorists and foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs). Biometrics provides the means for verifying the identity of those who seek to enter, transit or depart international borders. UN Security Council Resolution 2396 (2017) requested that member states develop and implement systems to collect biometrics data to responsibly and properly identify terrorists and share these data responsibly among member states and with relevant international bodies.
While known challenges exist in the verification of biometric data and the identification of individuals, the COVID-19 pandemic created even greater obstacles for effective and safe collection of data. These challenges, for example include the requirement of individuals to wear masks often making standoff collection of data more challenging, and concerns on the safety of touch-based system for biometric data collection. There is a need to expand the capabilities of biometric data collection and associated information sharing, to explore touchless methods that support accurate and efficient collection and processing of data.
Speaker:
Nelson Goncalves, Senior IBM Specialist – Manager of the IOM African Capacity Building Centre at IOM – International Organisation for Migration
Reinhard Schmid, Head of Central Identification Services at Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior
Andreas Wolf, Principal Scientist Biometrics at Bundesdruckerei GmbH
Rocco Messina, Project Officer at United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT), New York, USA
Host:
Bernhard Strobl, Thematic Coordinator at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
16.35 – 16.55
Keynote
New Rules for Economic and Cyber Security
Both economic situation as well cyber security are discussed everywhere. But they are having also clear connection. So how are they impacting each other?
Speaker:
Mika Lauhde, Vice-President, Cyber Security & Privacy, Global PACD at Huawei Technologies Co., LTD
Moderator:
Martin Szelgrad, Editor in chief at Report Verlag
Day 2
09.00 – 09.30
Opening
Opening Day 2
Welcome address:
Karl Nehammer, Minister at Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior
Keynote:
Arne Schönbohm, President at Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Germany
Moderator:
Martin Szelgrad, Editor in chief at Report Verlag
09.30 – 11.00
Session
Challenges and Abuse of Virtual Currencies
Virtual currencies (also known as cryptocurrencies) serve as a common means of payment in anonymised illegal cyber activities. The simple and widespread use of virtual currencies has become a driving factor in a wide range of cyber crimes, which continue to rise, especially in the wake of the current pandemic. These include, for example, the use of ransomware to attack critical infrastructure like hospital information systems, or sextortion, which extorts cryptocurrency payments from users based on threatened exposure of their online activities. Furthermore, there is an increasingly observable market concentration in mining pools, which is problematic from 50% upwards because it increases the potential danger of a takeover of entire blockchain systems that can then no longer be trusted. Use cases such as these are being investigated using forensic analysis tools such as GraphSense, developed at AIT.
This session examines the state of practice and new technologies for conducting forensic analysis of virtual currencies with regards to countering criminal activities.
Speaker:
Rainer Böhme, Professor for Security and Privacy at University of Innsbruck
Haaroon Yousaf, Doctoral Researcher at Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3), University College London (UCL)
Georgios Kappos, Doctoral Researcher at Information Security Group, Department of Computer Science, University College London
Eljo Haspels, CEO at Cointel B.V.
Kamal Anwar, Associate Counter-Terrorism Officer, Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Programme, at UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, New York
Host:
Bernhard Haslhofer, Thematic Coordinator at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
11.10 – 12.40
Session
Explainable AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a topic that today is surrounded by much fanfare as a collection of technologies with great promise to transform many elements of business and society. Through AI we expect to solve problems with machines that previously seemed impossible. Whether it is image processing, text analysis, speech recognition, or the analysis of sensor and machine data, there are many expectations for artificial intelligence to become a miracle technology. In fact, there are even discussions that AI will be able to outstrip human intelligence in the future and that “super intelligence” may one day emerge. AI has and will continue to introduce significant changes to technology and our lives.
However, AI is not without limitations. If one takes a closer look at the topic, it quickly becomes clear that impressive results can be achieved for various problem sets, but that very fundamental problems for implementing many AI-based solutions have yet to be solved. There are five basic challenges and related issues in international research that must first be addressed and resolved: modelability, verifiability, explainability, ethics and responsibility. Only when we have found solutions to these challenges, AI can serve as an effective tool that we can use responsibly.
Speaker:
Sepp Hochreiter, Head of Institute for Machine Learning at Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
Allan Hanbury, Professor for Data Intelligence at Technical University of Vienna – Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Jochen Borenich, COO at Kapsch BusinessCom
Professor Mariarosaria Taddeo, Deputy Director of the Digital Ethics Lab at Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Host:
Willibald Krenn, Thematic Coordinator at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
12.45 – 14.00
Session
Next Generation Situational Awareness Systems
Developing perception and understanding of the environment and events of interest is essential in decision-making in major event management. Events like COVID-19 demonstrate the need to build, maintain, and share situation awareness of global and national events. Crisis and disaster management requires interaction and coordination of an array of stakeholders ranging from the authorities and emergency organisations to the business community, infrastructure operators, the scientific community and citizens. Likewise, in many cases cross-border cooperation may be required. Thus, research teams are working on digital ICT tools for crisis and disaster management, such as for use in the pandemic we are facing today. Research focus includes not only the planning and provision of material and equipment, but also effective information exchange and optimized data management.
In this track, the IDSF discusses how these challenges can be met to improve the response to future crisis scenarios and how to support awareness, decision making and response.
Speaker:
Georg Aumayr, Head of Research and Innovation at Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe in Österreich
Harald Felgenhauer, Director at Systemic Foresight Institute, Austrian Federal Ministry for the Interior
Christian Resch, Managing Director at Disaster Competence Network Austria
Niek Mestrum, Business Development Manager Security and Defence at SAS Institute GmbH
Marcel Van Berlo, Program Coordinator at TNO
Karin Rainer, Projekt Portfolio Manager at AGES Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety
Host:
Georg Neubauer, Thematic Coordinator at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
14.05 – 15.15
Session
Cyber Security - Capability building in times of COVID
This session will be available soon!
15.20 – 16.50
Session
Cyber Security - Technology and Security in the Age of Pandemic
International cooperation, cooperation between industries, incident and emergency response (CERTs/CSIRTs).
The pandemic has dramatically changed the work practices for many. It has placed greater reliance on communications and virtual technologies. This shift has also brought the need for an evaluation of security requirements and technology solutions that are adaptive to provide organizations flexibility in these chaotic times. To what extent is this the case for current approaches and where are the gaps, if any? How do we adapt policy and governance frameworks appropriately (or at all)? How to deal with these significant changes? And how do we engage personnel on topics such as security awareness, now they are all working from home?
Speaker:
Friedrich Teichmann, Brigadier-General, Director of the Geospatial Institute, Austrian Armed Forces at Ministry of Defence, BMLV, Institut Militärisches GeoWesen, Austria
Fernando Puerto Mendoza, Programme Management Officer at United Nations Counter Terrorism Centre (UNCCT), UN Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT)
Prof. Dr. Kai Rannenberg, Chair of Mobile Business & Multilateral Security, Coordinator of CyberSec4Europe Competence Network at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Rafal Jaczynski, CSO at Huawei, CEE & Nordics at Huawei Technologies
Arne Schönbohm, President at Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)
Marie-Line Billaudaz, Cybercrime Officer at UNODC Cyber Program at United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Gert Seidl, Cybercrime Competence Center at Criminal Intelligence Service Austria
Host:
Helmut Leopold, Head of Center for Digital Safety & Security at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
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