In the lead up to the US presidential elections, the US government formally accused Russia of political hacking. The US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that the stealing and leaking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and other institutions was intended to interfere with the election process. Posted on WikiLeaks and other websites that publish classified information from anonymous sources, the leaks led to suggestions that these online platforms are linked to senior Russian officials.
But did Russia actually launch ‘cyber warfare’ on the US, and how grounded are the C.I.A.’s conclusions? Join us for a discussion on what the hacking debate has revealed about relations between the two countries and the new role of cyber conflict in international relations.
Chaired by journalist Andrew Jack. Andrew Jack has worked as a journalist at the Financial Times since 1990. He currently runs the curated content team, which guides busy readers through the best news and analysis from the FT and the rest of the web. He was previously deputy editor of the analysis section, pharmaceuticals correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, Paris correspondent, financial correspondent, general reporter and corporate reporter.
Speakers:
Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with The Guardian, who has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. He is the author of Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia, and A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Account of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West.
Victor Balagaddde is former editor of Kommersant UK, the only Russian language newspaper focusing on business and politics in Great Britain. He has also written for New Style, a Russian language magazine published in London and the Ukrainian Kharkovsky Courier.
Edward Lucas is a British journalist working for The Economist, the London-based global news weekly. He was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998 to 2002, and thereafter the central and east European correspondent.
Roland Oliphant covers Russia and the former Soviet Union for the Telegraph. He has reported on the Ukrainian revolution and civil war from Kiev, Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine
Nigel Inkster has worked at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) since 2007. His current title is Director of Future Conflict and Cyber Security. His research portfolio includes transnational terrorism, insurgency, transnational organised crime, cyber security, intelligence and security and the evolving character of conflict. Before joining IISS he served for thirty-one years in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) retiring in 2006 as Assistant Chief and Director of Operations and Intelligence.
]]>Deep Web gives the inside story of one of the the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century – the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht. In May 2015, the 30-year-old entrepreneur was accused and convicted of being ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’, creator and operator of online black market Silk Road. The film explores how the leaders behind the deep web are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle for control of a future inextricably linked to technology, with our digital rights hanging in the balance.
In addition to being the only film with exclusive access to the Ulbricht family, Deep Web features the core architects of the deep web; anarchistic cryptographers who developed the deep web’s tools for the military in the early 1990s; the dissident journalists and whistleblowers who immediately sought refuge in this seemingly secure environment; and the figures behind the rise of Silk Road, which combined the security of the deep web with the anonymity of cryptocurrency.
Directed by: Alex Winter
Produced by: Marc Schiller
Year: 2015
Runtime: 90′
Country: USA
On the eighth floor of an ordinary-looking building in an otherwise residential district of southwest Moscow, in a room occupied by the Federal Security Service (FSB), is a box the size of a VHS player marked SORM. The Russian government’s front line in the battle for the future of the Internet, SORM is the world’s most intrusive listening device – monitoring e-mails, Internet usage, Skype, and all social networks.
In a new book The Red Web, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan peel back the history of advanced surveillance systems in Russia. They will be joining us to discuss what they found and to reveal how a free global exchange can be coerced into becoming a tool of repression and geopolitical warfare.
Having conducted interviews with numerous prominent officials in the Ministry of Communications and web-savvy activists challenging the state, the picture they paint sees dissidents, oligarchs, and some of the world’s most dangerous hackers collide in the uniquely Russian virtual world.
This event will be moderated by the BBC’s Home Affairs Correspondent, Daniel Sandford. Sandford was the BBC’s Moscow Correspondent from 2010-2014, and covered the annexation of Crimea, the war in Eastern Ukraine, the downing of MH17, the anti-Putin protests, and the detention of Pussy Riot.
The panel:
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan are cofounders of Agentura.Ru and authors of The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB. Soldatov worked for Novaya Gazeta from 2006 to 2008. Agentura.Ru and its reporting have been featured in The New York Times, Moscow Times, Washington Post, Online Journalism Review, Le Monde, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, Federation of American Scientists, and the BBC.
Edin Omanovic is a Researcher at Privacy International, a London based NGO which investigates state surveillance and the industry which enables it. Omanovic advocates for greater transparency and accountability over the trade and use of surveillance technology, and has published several investigative reports and policy analyses on limiting the trade in surveillance technologies and protecting human rights from unlawful surveillance practices. Omanovic led research on Privacy International’s recent report on the use of Israeli, Russian, and European surveillance technology in Central Asia, Private Interests: Monitoring Central Asia, and was previously a Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute where he focused on the arms trade and illicit trafficking.
Tonia Samsonova is foreign correspondent for Echo Moskvy. She is also founder of TheQuestion.ru – a popular service that aims to connect people who have questions with those who are able to find answers, and through that interaction create and spread the culture of consciousness.
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL BE FILMED AND STREAMED LIVE ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
]]>As a teenager, programming prodigy Aaron Swartz took the Internet community by storm. His intellect and understanding matched its most seasoned members. Today, his fingerprints are all over the Internet, from his help in the development of the basic Internet protocol RSS to his co-founding of Reddit. But Swartz’s groundbreaking work in social justice, combined with his aggressive approach to information access ensnared him in a two-year legal nightmare, with fatal consequences.
In 2011 and 2012, he was indicted by prosecutors who charged him with a staggering number of felonies. Swartz found himself facing 35 years in prison, and at the age of 26 was found dead in his apartment, from an apparent suicide. The Internet’s Own Boy tells the personal and moving story of what we lose when we are tone deaf about technology and its relationship to our civil liberties.
Directed by Brian Knappenberger
Duration: 105′
Year: 2014
The Internet’s Own Boy will be released in cinema’s across the UK by Kaleidoscope Film Distribution
What do a dead poet, organised crime and the air we breathe have in common?
On Thursday 21 November the Frontline Club screened The Carbon Crooks – director Tom Heinemann’s exposé of the massive fraud and failures within global carbon trading schemes.
Heinemann introduced his picture thus:
“This film is a about a system where, one could say everybody are crooks, or nobody are crooks. . . . How can you nail a whole system? That was the challenge in this film. Maybe you’ll find a lot of crooks in this film, or maybe you’ll find no crooks.”
Director Tom Heinemann. Photography Credit: George Symonds
The first question from the audience asked: “The VAT carousel has been known for 20 years. How is it possible that they didn’t think of it for emissions trading?”
“That’s a very good question,” said Heinemann, “that the EU Commission didn’t want to answer me either. . . . I don’t know who designed the system, but I’m sure someone has some red ears, somewhere. It took them way too long to stop this. Way too long.”
“Are we going to move away from market-based mechanisms?” followed another audience member.
“Well, I’m a journalist. I ask questions, I don’t give the answers,” began Heinemann. “But, my impression is that . . . the politicians today say, ‘We can’t do it better so we’ll pick the second or third best system.’ What can we do about this? I don’t know. Kevin Anderson, the advisor for the British government on climate issues has stopped flying. He has said, ‘I’ve used my credits.’”
https://twitter.com/CCESltd/statuses/403805857760428032
In response to a question on police investigations Heinemann explained:
“The real problem here is that most of the scam money came from organised crime. We have drug dealers, terrorist funders – the scum of the earth – have laundered money into these VAT carousels. There are a lot of investigations going on . . . there are employees of Deutsche Bank still accused of laundering carbon credit money.”
On why the authorities refuse to answer where the missing – traceable – credits have gone:
“Why don’t they tell us? Maybe it’s too embarrassing,” offered Heinemann. “Maybe it would reveal that these credits have been in so many ‘honest hands.’ . . . You heard the Director of Europol, Rob Wainwright, saying it’s easier to hack into a carbon credit registry than stealing a car. I mean, that’s really trustworthy isn’t it? These questions need to be asked by people other than me, because there are a lot of people who don’t want to talk to me any more.”
Heinemann then expanded on the connection between carbon trading and international development:
“Gold Standard admits to us that half of their projects – about 60 – throughout the world are based on a system called ‘suppressed demand’. Meaning, you ask the poor people, ‘If I brought in a money tree, and you pluck it every day, would you then change your behaviour?’ . . . It’s not a big part of the system but a very important story. Because it was created by a lot of NGOs, based on a mathematical economic theory where the Danish professor says, ‘In the old days we had the vicar, we could go and get redemption. Today we have a long mathematical formula.’ So it fits!”
Heinemann concluded with his forecast for future carbon control:
“The head of communication for DONG Energy, a 80% state-owned Danish energy company, admits it has never been cheaper to pollute than today. It is cheaper than ever. Then there’s something wrong with the system. . . . The problem is that the market cannot reduce carbon emissions, apparently.”
More information about the film can be found at The Carbon Crooks website.
As the relationship between the press and the web rapidly develops, questions continue to arise over the future of print, and the impact the Internet is having on quality journalism.
The evening will bring together outlets both old and new, and feature some of the country’s leading editors and data journalists, including:
Data panel:
Conrad Quilty-Harper – The Telegraph, Ampp3d
Mona Chalabi – The Guardian‘s Datablog; FiveThirtyEight
Dan Knowles – The Economist
Nicola Hughes – The Times, DataMinerUK
Michael Blastland – Author, The Tiger that Isn’t; Broadcaster, Radio 4
https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/the-death-of-traditional-media
Editor’s panel:
Luke Lewis – Editor, Buzzfeed UK
Merope Mills – Editor, Saturday Guardian
Pete Picton – Deputy Publisher, Mail Online
Helen Lewis – Deputy Editor, New Statesman
George Brock – Head of Journalism, City University; author, Out of Print
https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/the-death-of-traditional
Tuesday 30 July 2013, 7:00 PM – Side by Side
For almost one hundred years there was only one way to make a movie: photochemical film. Over the last two decades a digital process has emerged to challenge this initial form of filmmaking. At a moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, Side by Side explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring.
Tuesday 6 August 2013, 7:00 PM – The Pirate Bay: Away from Keyboard
The largest and most famous torrent website in the world, The Pirate Bay, quickly became one of many antagonists of the entertainment industry. The three Swedish founders face $13 million in damage claims by the media establishment. TPB-AFK chronicles a historic drama beyond the copyright debate and tells a human story torn by cyberwar.
Tuesday 20 August 2013, 7:00 PM – The Human Scale FULLY BOOKED
The Human Scale: it’s a ticking time bomb. In the next 40 years the number of people living in cities will nearly double. There is not enough time to build the necessary infrastructure to accomodate all of us. According to revolutionary Danish city planner Jan Gehl, even the largest of megacities must be re-thought, re-designed and re-sized to the human scale.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Andreas M. Dalsgaard
Tuesday 27 August 2013, 7:00 PM – Google and the World Brain FULLY BOOKED
Google and the World Brain connects the central story of Google Books with fundamental issues related to the Internet – privacy, copyright, data-mining, downloading and surveillance. Through interviews with experts from across the world we learn about the implications of one of the most ambitious and simultaneously controversial projects ever conceived on the Internet.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Ben Lewis.
Tuesday 3 September 2013, 7:00 PM – Rewind This! BOOK NOW
Home video changed the way the world consumed films. Low cost equipment and the rise of VHS created unprecedented opportunities for the film industry. Rewind This! looks at media consumption, zero budget filmmaking, unchecked global piracy and an exploding film industry, through the rise and fall of VHS. Developments that laid the foundation for today’s digital culture.
Tuesday 30 July 2013, 7:00 PM – Side by Side
Tuesday 6 August 2013, 7:00 PM – The Pirate Bay: Away from Keyboard
Tuesday 20 August 2013, 7:00 PM – The Human Scale BOOK NOW
[vimeo clip_id=”67638874″ width=”400″ height=”225″]
Tuesday 27 August 2013, 7:00 PM – Google and the World Brain BOOK NOW
Tuesday 3 September 2013, 7:00 PM – Preview: Rewind This! BOOK NOW
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The largest and most famous torrent website in the world, The Pirate Bay, quickly became one of many antagonists of the entertainment industry. The three Swedish founders face $13 million in damage claims by the media establishment. Director Simon Klose followed them between 2008 and 2012, offering a glimpse into secret worlds, like a subterranean data bunker, all glass and chiseled rock.
Unified less by a shared ideology than by an often juvenile humour and disdain for the establishment, the three main players are put on trial for copyright infringement. Spokesman Peter is happy to defend their site under freedom of speech grounds, while Fredrik and Gottfrid are in it for the technological challenges.
TPB-AFK chronicles a historic drama beyond the copyright debate and tells a human story torn by cyberwar. Klose tells the inside story of how a cluster of hacktivists built the internet’s largest filesharing site, challenged the entertainment industry and helped shape the debate about intellectual freedom.
Directed by Simon Klose
Duration: 81′
Year: 2012
This screening is part of a summer season looking at the way technological changes are shaping the way we document the world and interact with it. See the full programme here.
]]>In 1937 H.G. Wells predicted the creation of the “World Brain” – a giant global library that contained all human knowledge, which would lead to a new form of higher intelligence. Seventy years later the realisation of this dream seemed to be underway, as Google started scanning millions and millions of books for its Google Books website. With over half these books still in copyright, authors and publishers across the world launched a campaign to stop Google. Climaxing in a New York courtroom in 2011.
In Google and the World Brain, director Ben Lewis connects the central story of Google Books with fundamental issues related to the Internet – privacy, copyright, data-mining, downloading and surveillance. Through interviews with experts from across the world, we learn about the implications of one of the most ambitious and simultaneously controversial projects ever conceived on the Internet.
Directed by Ben Lewis
Duration:
89′
Year: 2013
For more information about the film you can go to the official website or like the facebook page.
This screening is part of a summer season looking at the way technological changes are shaping the way we document the world and interact with it. See the full programme here.
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In 2010, WikiLeaks and its sources used the power of the internet to usher in what was for some a new era of transparency, and for others the beginnings of a new information war. Julian Assange. Bradley Manning. Collateral murder. Cablegate. WikiLeaks. These people and terms exploded into the public consciousness by fundamentally changing the way democratic societies deal with privacy, secrecy, and the right to information, perhaps for generations to come.
Academy Award winner Alex Gibney tells the story of what happens when an incredibly small group of people decide to break open the intelligence vaults of the most powerful nations on the planet. We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks explores how this enormous trove of classified US data was leaked and the impact the documents have had on international events.
Directed by Alex Gibney
Duration: 130′
Year: 2012