Conference: “Is Your Company under Threat? New Digital Risks & Computer Attacks: Forensic & Data Protection Aspects” (Medellin, Colombia – 16 Nov. 2011)

UPDATE (28 Nov. 2011): the video of the conference is now available at http://envivo.eafit.edu.co/EnvivoEafit/?p=10790.

Next week, I am organizing with two colleagues a conference in Medellin, Colombia, about the country’s recent data protection law entitled: “Is Your Company at Risk? New Digital Risks and Computer Attacks: Forensic and Data Protection Aspects – International Perspectives and the New Colombian Legislation”. Now that the Constitutional Court has approved the law, the time has come for the government to implement it into regulations, and for companies to start seriously considering how they will put in place the measures necessary to comply with the new rules.

In this conference, we plan on talking, from the forensic expert’s point of view, about the threats Colombian companies are facing with the latest waves of cybercrimes and computer attacks, the new risks they must address and the new challenges they must tackle.  We will then cover the new law itself: its scope, the legal and regulatory privacy framework in Colombia, and the legal impact for companies.  In a third and last part, the focus will be to explain the position of the new law within the landscape of current or emerging data protection laws in Latin America, but then also in the more global context of legislative and public policy developments in the European Union and the United States, and what these developments mean for Colombia at a time when its government is drafting its new data protection regulatory framework.

Conference speakers are:

• Álvaro Alexander Soto, Director, Digital Forensic & Security Lab, Asoto Technology Group (forensic company with offices in Medellin and Bogota (Colombia), and Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.)),
• Arean Velasco, Attorney, Velasco & Calle d’Alleman (a law firm with offices in Medellin, Colombia) and
• Cédric Laurant, Principal, Cedric Laurant Consulting (consulting firm based in Brussels, Belgium)

Practical information: the conference will take place on 16 November 2011, 18:00-20:00 at the Universidad EAFIT, Carrera 49 N° 7 Sur – 50, Medellín (Colombia) – Bloque 38, Auditorio 125.  Language: Spanish.  Free entrance.  Prior registration required at info@cedriclaurant.com or right before the event at the conference venue.  More information in the flyer below.

Please do share this event with people who could be interested.

Conference: "Is Your Company at Risk? New Digital Risks and Computer Attacks: Forensic and Data Protection Aspects - International Perspectives and the New Colombian Legislation" (EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia - 16 Nov. 2011) (p. 1)

Conference: "Is Your Company at Risk? New Digital Risks and Computer Attacks: Forensic and Data Protection Aspects - International Perspectives and the New Colombian Legislation" (EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia - 16 Nov. 2011) (p. 2)

“Privacy is Freedom”: Public Voice Event in Mexico City (31 Oct. 2011)

"Dia de los Muertos" (photo by Natalie Curtiss, shot on February 26, 2011).

Two days before the 33^rd International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners takes place in Mexico City, The Public Voice, an international coalition of NGO’s, and nonprofit organizations, is organizing this Monday a full-day event to discuss the views of Civil Society representatives from Latin America, Europe and North America, but also with several government officials and industry speakers.  The issues featured are the same as the ones that will be discussed for the following three days in the Mexican capital: privacy and data protection, and how they relate to broader issues such as freedom of expression and consumer protection.

The stated goals of the conference are to:

• review the status of the two Madrid Declarations (Civil Society’s Madrid Privacy Declaration (“Global Privacy Standards for a Global World”) and the Data Protection Commissioners’s International Standards on Privacy and Personal Data Protection.
• assess cultures and privacy perspectives from around the world;
• raise public awareness on surveillance technologies and its consequences to consumers, freedom of expression and human rights;
• explore the ongoing policy and legal issues at stake in Latin America about privacy and freedom of expression.
• establish networking opportunities between Mexican civil society and consumer rights advocates and members of the Public Voice.

The event hosts are the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI), the Mexican Data Protection Authority.  Some of the government speakers they invited include:

• Marie-Hélène Boulanger, Head of the Data Protection Unit of the Directorate General “Justice” at the European Commission,
• Jacob Kohnstamm, Chair of the European Article 29 Data Protection Working Party,
• Jacqueline Peschard, IFAI’s President,
• Peter Schaar, the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Germany, and
• David Vladeck, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the United States Federal Trade Commission.

The full list of speakers is available here.

If you wanted to attend the meeting physically, unfortunately at this time it is not possible anymore to register to attend the meeting in person.  If you plan on following the event online, just go to the webcast page at the start of the event: today at 08:00am GMT-6.

Several people have already offered to tweet about the event in several languages (currently English, French, Portuguese and Spanish).  If you want to make comments about the panels or even ask questions directly to speakers, you will be able to do so by using the #tpv11 hashtag in your tweets and the speaker’s Twitter username (speakers list on Twitter).  I will be tweeting in English and French from my Twitter account (@cedric_laurant).

Public Voice event in Mexico City (Oct. 31, 2011)