~ CivicTech Toronto ~ #DigitalSovereignty

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Definitions

  • Data Residency
    • where your data is located (resides)
  • Data Sovereignty
    • control over data and systems

Definitions

  • Data Sovereignty
  • Digital Sovereignty
  • Cloud Sovereignty
  • Network Sovereignty

Cyber Security: Example threats

  • Malware, viruses
  • Phishing, Social Engineering, Password attacks
  • SQL injection, code vulnerabilities
  • DDoS attacks, etc
  • Foreign governments which are not becoming less fascist/authoritarian any time soon, and have legal access to our data

Cyber Security: Risk assessment

U.S. CLOUD act - March 2018

Cyber Security: Trust

  • Internet security is based on a network of trust.
  • Even tech giants can be trusted to a point because they are motivated to keep customers.
  • If a part of the system can't be trusted it needs to be mitigated, patched, or removed.

51st state? No thanks

Trump again mentioned this in the context of discussing the golden dome missile defense just last week.

The chaotic US administration continues to show that they can't be trusted.

Okay, let's do Sovereignty.

But how?

We do have options. Open Source Software can empower our digital sovereignty.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice

Plane

Project
Management

Marp

## Marp

- Presentation software
- Simple markdown syntax
- https://marp.app/

<!-- also mention LibreOffice Impress -->

So... what to do now?

How do we achieve digital sovereignty?

  • Investment from government in sovereign network and cloud. (and AI)
  • Government incentives for Canadian businesses and customers.
  • [Civic] Tech innovators build with sovereignty in mind. Slowly forming the habit.

What NOT to do:

  1. 👨‍⚖️ Judge others for not using OSS or Canadian hosted software. (Remember it's complicated.)
  2. 🏛️ Wait for the government to fix this.
  3. 😭 Worry or despair because of the risk.

What we can do

  1. 📣 Be a voice for sovereignty when it comes up.
  2. 🇪🇺 Be encouraged by existing examples.
  3. 🖊️ Add your voice to the letter to PM Carney
  4. 😉 Partner with consultants and IT service providers who offer sovereign solutions.
  5. ❤️ Help each other learn Open Source tools in our communities and places like CivicTech TO.

CanShield Digital

canshield.ca

Take away

  • No fear
  • This is our chance to build on our terms
  • Sharing, cooperation, creativity
  • Inclusion and respect

Questions?

@davenuman.bsky.social
@canshield.bsky.social

📧 hello@canshield.ca
🌐 canshield.ca

Open Source Software

But as Neil Young puts it, There's big crime in D.C in the whitehouse.

In response to Trump's trade war, customers turn items Upside down on a shelf to help fellow Canadians identify US products

With tech choices, it's not that simple. We can easily identify. But finding alternatives is the tricky part.

I have personally been using OSS for decades so it's a well formed habit for me. I'll go over some examples that address the sovereignty issue.

LibreOffice Write

LibreOffice Calc

Rocket Chat

Cal.com an alternative to Calendly

Plane is project management software similar to Jira. This is a screenshot of my usage for my busieness, CanShield Digital. Yes, I'm a fan of Star Wars: Andor.

Lime Survey is a robust form generating software, similar to Google Forms

Infisical is secrets management

Immich just reached 2.0 on October 1!

also mention LibreOffice Impress

Call to Action

That was only a small sample of alternatives. Where do we start?

Policy has impact.

I founded CanShield Digital to help move towards Canadian digital sovereignty. My goal is to partner with small/medium businesses and organizations, providing technical strategy and managed IT solutions that meet their needs, while protecting their privacy and security.

The threat on our sovereignty is scary, but I don't think we should be motivated by fear. Let's reframe it. What if this is an opportunity to build a better Canadian Internet - on our terms - characterized not by greed, market domination, and control; but by sharing of knowledge, creativity,, characterized by cooperation, and mutual respect. Thank you for listening to my CivicTech talk.