Internet Law Summer School 2014

The end of each summer always gets me excited, because one of my favorite events is taking place: the Internet Law Summer School organized by ELSA – The European Law Students’ Association. This summer school is the perfect opportunity to meet young, smart and talented law students and discuss privacy, security or internet threats with them.

These students will become the lawyers, prosecutors and judges of tomorrow – so it’s very important for them to get them in touch with the real world problems of fighting cyber-crime and ensuring the security and privacy of personal data.

Fighting cyber-crime through all means possible has always been our mission here at Kaspersky Lab. But we can’t do this alone. Sure, our products and technologies are protecting hundreds of millions of users worldwide, but stopping cyber-crime is something we can not do just by ourselves.

Cyber-crime is a huge problem worldwide and it is always very frustrating to see that those persons responsible for cyber-attacks very rarely have to face the consequences of their actions. In the last 24 hours, we’ve discovered more than 300.000 new viruses, trojans and worms. How many cyber-criminals have received prison sentences in the same 24 hours period?

The reason why cyber-criminals usually get away with their crimes is that both law enforcement and judicial systems around the world are having a hard time trying to keep up with the evolution of technology, or threats on the internet specifically. This is why it’s so important to train law enforcement officers. This is why it’s so important to train judges and prosecutors. At the end of the day, they are the ones actually fighting cyber-crime by sending cyber-criminals to jail.

This year, the main focus of the summer school was on freedom of media and private life. I focused on the privacy and security side, of course – with a workshop titled “Private life in cyberspace – securing your personal data online”.

My main message? Trust and use encryption in order to thwart prying eyes – but don’t forget that no matter how good the encryption you’re using is, an insecure operating system will always offer the attacker the chance of accessing your data before it gets encrypted. You can’t have privacy without first having good security.

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