An open source solution that can be used to collect forensic data from computing equipment used by terrorists took first place in a recent United Nations-sponsored competition, the Cybersecurity Challenge.
Organised by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) – a project of the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), and the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), the Cybersecurity Challenge’s objective was to find solutions to counter terrorist use of new technology, including the dissemination of terrorist content online.
Teams, whose members ranged in age from 18 to 36, had to develop solutions that would specifically target the African, South and Southeast Asia regions. Thirteen teams from 16 countries participated in the challenge finals, held in Vienna, Austria in December.
The winning team from Singapore developed a “PowerShell in a USB stick” solution that enables forensic data to be harvested for analysis quickly from terrorists’ hardware.
UNTIL is planning to review the solution with the help of the OICT Digital Blue Helmets (DBH) Team, before possibly engaging in supporting the team in one of the UNTIL labs. The DBH programme serves as a common platform for technology security across the UN’s agencies, funds and programmes.
According to the UN, terrorist misuse of new technologies targets and exploits youth more than any other age demographics.
“Young people have hands-on experience with a range of digital tools they use daily and they are more and more aware of the risks of using these tools. Young people are a great partner in fighting digital terrorism,” said Maurizio Gazzola, chief of strategic solutions and head of the Global UNTIL Programme.
UNTIL labs
UNTIL was set up in 2018. Its mission is to “leverage emerging technology to transform societies, nations and humanity as a whole” and to solve some of humanity’s most pressing needs, including peace and security, development, human rights, international law and humanitarian affairs.
UNTIL labs have so far been established in Egypt, Finland, India and Malaysia. The idea is that they will create a platform for collaborative problem-solving technology solutions using AI, blockchain, IOT and other hi-tech tools. These solutions must be open source to enable sharing and technology transfer among all UN member states once operational.
Youth teams from Egypt, Finland, India and Malaysia, as well as Germany and the United States, produced winning solutions in UNTIL’s global 2019 “Reboot the Earth” coding event. UNTIL launched the event to challenge young people to solve a local climate crisis by improving on an existing program or to build a new one.
The winning solutions, all of which were open source, included a mobile application that uses sensors for measuring water needs and the temperature of the crops themselves across the fields; an AI platform that allows communities to collaborate on data collection to solve climate challenges; a solution combining blockchain and gamification to promote responsible production and consumption of palm oil; a video game that helps raise awareness on the importance of sport as an agent for change for climate issues; and an app that crowdsources greenhouse gas measurements.
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