Serene-risc Annual Workshop 2020

On October 21st and 22nd, SERENE-RISC held its annual event under the theme of “The state of Canadian cybersecurity – Human-Centric Cybersecurity”

For the first time, the event took place online. The online format allowed us to present a broader program with multiple tracks and welcome more people across the world. This event brought together nearly 270 professionals from academia, industry and government who could exchange on the latest advances and the most recent work in cybersecurity and cybercrime.

The 2020 program was organized into nine panels tackling major and current issues in cybersecurity: advances in quantum computing and their implications, cybersecurity issues in public health, challenges for organizations investigating cybercrime, security issues of the Internet of Things, the central role of the human factor in cybersecurity, the protection of personal data, gender issues, and finally technical advances in cybersecurity. The results of the second wave of the Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cybercrime were also presented for the first time by Statistics Canada, and CIRA discussed its Canadian Shield initiative. Serene-risc invited 34 speakers from public organizations such as the Sureté du Québec, academics from Canadian and foreign universities as well as professionals and students in the field of cybersecurity.

For more information, see the detailed program.

Once again this year, Serene-risc provided an opportunity for students to engage with the conference. Students were invited to present their research work in a poster competition. Through the digital platform, they were able to exchange with many professionals from industry and academia. The winner of the 2020 competition is Aniqa Alam. Student at Carlton University, she is interested in human-computer interaction. Read more about the winning poster here.

The Serene-risc team also offered networking opportunities that allowed participants to take advantage of this digital experience. Around 170 contacts were exchanged via the digital platform, and live events were organized to open discussions on the different sessions. Finally, the networking event facilitated by Michael Joyce (co-Executive Director of Serene-risc) and Gary Perkins (Chief Information Security Officer for the Province of British Columbia) brought together a small group of participants for a team game around cybersecurity.

(Re)view the 2020 Serene-risc Annual Workshop:

Access all online panels and talks from the 2020 Serene-risc Annual Workshop on our YouTube Channel.

Serene-risc Annual Workshop 2020 by the numbers: