Christopher Parsons (he/him/his)

Outlook 365 alternately autocompletes my name to “Christ” or (most recently) “Christmas” which is always fun to receive (and, once, accidentally sign off as….)

Germany’s top court holds that police can only use spyware to investigate serious crimes The plaintiffs argued that a 2017 rules change enabling law enforcement to use spyware to eavesdrop on encrypted chats and messaging platforms could unfairly expose communications belonging to people ...

Germany's top court: Police can only use spyware to probe serious crimes due to its "exceptional reach" and "very serious interference" with individual rights

therecord.media/germany-spyw...

More than 130,000 Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, and Other LLM Chats Readable on Archive.org The issue of publicly saving shared LLM chats is bigger than just Google.

New from 404 Media: more than 130,000 Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, and other LLM chats are readable on Archive.org. It's similar to the Google indexing issue, but shows it impacts many more LLMs than just ChatGPT. Some chats contain API keys.

www.404media.co/more-than-13...

Federal court filing system hit in sweeping hack The identities of confidential court informants are feared compromised in a series of breaches across multiple U.S. states.

NEW: "The electronic case filing system used by the federal judiciary has been breached in a sweeping cyber intrusion that is believed to have exposed sensitive court data across multiple U.S. states, according to two people with knowledge of the incident."

Faculty (UWOFA) Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

Political Science at Western University, Canada is searching for three tenure track assistant professors. There are two ads, one in International Politics (IR or comparative) and one in Comparative or Canadian. Ads are here: www.uwo.ca/facultyrelat...

CSE and NSERC to fund research on exploratory analysis of unstructured data www.canada.ca/en/communica...

Blue background with the text, we're hiring!

Interested in the intersection of science and public policy? Apply to be a Project Coordinator. We're looking for a motivated and enthusiastic individual who excels working in a fast-paced environment. #CdnSci #PoliSci

Find out more and apply: www.cca-reports.ca/careers/

Links of Interest Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com I aggregate and share links to articles, reports, or other materials pertaining to my professional interests. Topics covered tend to include: cybersecurity, …

For 2+ years I’ve been curating a public RSS feed on #cybersecurity, #AI, #privacy, #nationalsecurity, #criticalinfrastructure, & associated policy/legal updates.

Most recent 20 links are at: christopher-parsons.com/resources/li...

You can subscribe to the RSS feed at: raindrop.io/collection/2...

Ufffff…

I’d anticipate this to be the case.

And with the heightened interest in the north, in particular, I can see reasons why the government may want to send less-militaristic Coast Guard vessels for intel collection vs warships or available underwater collection devices/vessels.

Government Bill (House of Commons) C-2 (45-1) - First Reading - Strong Borders Act - Parliament of Canada Government Bill (House of Commons) C-2 (45-1) - First Reading - Strong Borders Act - Parliament of Canada

Anyways: this just seems like a little clause that isn’t subject to much discussion just yet. Though that may change over time with more eyes assessing and studying the legislation!

You can find the full bill at: www.parl.ca/DocumentView...

(On 3. — I’m not a Coast Guard expert and so 100% just hypothesizing!)

It is also possible these amendments may help Canada to:
1. reach some of its NATO spending objectives
2. establish a statutory authority to expand intelligence collection if certain allied sources are cut off. 3. potentially, lend statutory protections for activities already being undertake.

The proposed powers look similar to those associated with the USA’s Coast Guard, which has an intelligence collection function (see, for example, www.dco.uscg.mil/Our-Organiza... or www.intelligence.gov/how-the-ic-w...)

The bill then further clarifies that “[i]n exercising the powers and performing the duties and functions assigned to them under section 41, the Minister (…) may collect, analyze and disclose information or intelligence.”

The amendments would, by my reading, expand the services offered by the Coast Guard to include:

> (f) security, including security patrols and the collection, analysis and disclosure of information or intelligence.

While it’s received understandable less attention by scholars, journalists, and civil society, I think it’s notable that Canada’s Bill C-2 will amend the Oceans Act, and specifically the section dealing with the Coast Guard.

#nationalsecurity #intelligence

Excellent news! Congratulations!

🤩

Excited to announce the Enigma Track program is now live for USENIX Security '25! Taking place August 13-14, this track delves into technology's societal impacts & future challenges: www.usenix.org/conference/u... 1/8

Again, you can find the newly published guardrails at: www.ipc.on.ca/en/resources...

3. Hold regular meaningful consultations with Indigenous and other equity-seeking groups, privacy and human rights advocates, victims' rights groups, and other parties to ensure consideration and integration of a broad range of perspectives on the privacy and human rights impact of police use of IGG

2. Localize IGG-related DNA sequencing to an accredited public forensic laboratory based in Ontario that is subject to Canadian law

We, also, recommend three additional measures to support public trust in police use of IGG. In summary:

1. Establish an independent, province wide IGG advisory committee with the requisite interdisciplinary expertise

9. Openness and transparency
10. Individual access and privacy rights
11. Public consultations
12. Ethical disclosure guidelines

The guardrails, specifically, address:

1. Lawful authority
2. Necessity and proportionality
3. Accountability
4. Third-party procurement
5. Data minimization and purpose limitation
6. Retention
7. Data security
8. Controls for surreptitious data collection

Notably this is being proactively published to meet and assist police, today, as opposed to reactively waiting for the courts or legislatures. This will help to ensure that police understand the IPC’s expectations as they use this technique in the coming months and years ahead.

It builds on 2+ years of work conducted by the IPC, which included strategic foresight work, multiple convenings of a wide and extensive group of interested parties, and extensive consultation with experts.

Today the Ontario IPC released guardrails for the use of Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) by police. www.ipc.on.ca/en/resources...

#policing #privacy #genealogy