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2004-2005 Success Stories

Privacy, Security and Trust: "All-important PST Community of Practice Taking Shape"

In Brief

NRC-IIT’s PST research team has been instrumental in establishing a much-needed community of practice in the field. It has brought together world experts in the now-annual PST Conference, an international forum for these experts to discuss, debate, examine and improve the current PST landscape within Canada and beyond. The PST conference brings together researchers, practitioners and policy makers from industry, the public sector and academe to share ideas and research directions on this most timely of topics. This coming together was needed to establish a forum for the exchange of information among the various PST experts and stakeholders in an area of research that is critical to Canada’s security and prosperity. The success of the PST conference illustrates the stakeholder buy-in to the idea that security researchers need to come together regularly, interact, and collectively come up with solutions. The ongoing impact of this series of conferences will be a safer and more secure information highway - and everyday world - for us and for our children.

“It is critical that we talk to one another about what’s going on in the area of Privacy, Security and Trust research and the role of the Internet in our everyday lives. The Internet is all-pervasive, and we have to find ways to make it safe and usable. This conference has helped us do that. It has brought together key players in the PST research field and provided a forum for us to join forces and find solutions. We need to work together, to complement one another, and to share strengths and ideas. We need to realize that the criminal element will always be one step ahead of us in finding ways to exploit new technology. We need to find and close these gaps. It is vital that we do everything possible to counter the efforts of those who would use the Internet to facilitate the sexual exploitation of children. Thanks to this conference, we have made progress.”
Detective Sergeant Paul Gillespie, Toronto Police Department, Keynote speaker at PST 2004 Conference.

The PST Conference

What do e-GoverNet, the Atlantic Canada HCI network, and the Interdisciplinary Health Research Alliance have in common? NRC-IIT. Of course research networks and communities of practice require the cooperation of many partners, but the creation of successful networks where they were much needed and where there were none before has become a hallmark of NRC-IIT-e-Business. Perhaps the community of practice that is having the greatest impact is in Privacy Security and Trust (PST).

Through the establishment of the now-annual PST Conference, NRC-IIT has helped to build a much-needed community of practice in the area of PST research. Previously there was no framework for the research and development of online privacy, security and trust solutions while fostering knowledge expertise, increasing intellectual capital, and transforming research results into direct benefits for Canada.

PST 2004 was held in Fredericton in October 2004 and followed on from the successful national PST workshop in Montréal in October 2003 (the first event to draw together experts in the field from across the country). The Montreal workshop was part of the national “From e-Commerce to e-Economy” series; PST is crucial to the development of Canada’s e-Economy.

A further objective of NRC’s PST research is identifying and connecting all PST researchers coast to coast and developing highly-qualified PST knowledgeable personnel to augment the Canadian workforce as researchers and IT professionals. To this end, the NRC-IIT PST Research Group has been instrumental in developing PhD candidates in specific areas of PST research.

PST research has become critically important to society in general and to information technology in particular. Legislation such as PIPEDA, and discussions of biometrics and national identity cards, coupled with ever-expanding cyber security threats, have served to heighten the awareness of PST.

Contacts

NRC-IIT:

Greg Sprague
Research Officer
Research Programs, New Brunswick
NRC Institute for Information Technology
46 Dineen Drive
Fredericton, NB E3B 9W4
Telephone: +1 (506) 444-0492
Fax: +1 (506) 444-6114
E-mail: Greg.Sprague@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

UNB:

Dr. Gregory Kealey
Vice-President - Research
Telephone: +1 (506) 453-5189

New Brunswick Department of Public Safety:

Mr. Andrew Easton
Director, Security and Emergencies Directorate
Telephone: +1 (506) 462-5099