Does the Internet need saving? | Byron Holland | TEDxKanata

Does the Internet need saving? | Byron Holland | TEDxKanata

[Music] it’s beautiful isn’t it looks like the Galaxy that’s actually a shot of the Internet it’s beautiful I love the internet it is Humanity’s greatest invention more consequential than the printing press more important than the entire Industrial Revolution it has connected Humanity revolutionized business education even governments from the sublime to the ridiculous it has enabled us to shop without ever entering a store to bank without ever entering a bank and to receive Health Care without ever entering a doctor’s office and yes waste Untold hours playing Candy Crush the internet is the amazing foundational technology that has enabled it all but today I’m deeply deeply concerned about its darker elements the internet that we know and love is at risk it needs saving the very same revolutionary technology that connected us all is now being exploited on a global level ransomware hackers fishing scams just to name a few are rampant and they’re they can ruin people’s lives and their businesses if you haven’t been compromised by an online scam I’m sure you’ve seen it in your inbox it’s projected that the costs of cyber security are going to top $10.5 trillion in 2025 that’s next year 10.5 trillion that number is so big it’s hard to wrap your head around but for frame of reference that’s 40 times the amount of money that it would take to end world hunger misinformation conspiracy theories disinformation pushed at us by Foreign adversaries pits us against each other undermines the trust that we have in our own democratically elected environments and a lot of this is happening in plain sight on social media platforms like Facebook and many others monitor everything we do right our relationships our behaviors our sh shopping our locations and then package it all up and auction it to the highest bidder many now call us surveillance capitalism surveillance capitalism we’re invading your privacy manipulating your behavior and amplifying all of our outrage that is the business model and it is having a material impact on our mental health dramatically escalating self harm rates especially among young people but none of us are IM immune none of us are immune as an adult I’ve been attacked by the Twitter mob and it is painful I can’t imagine can you imagine what that would feel like as a teenager but here’s the thing here’s the thing the future of the internet is still being written and we we’re the authors this is a pivotal moment in the history of the internet there are some incredible emerging new technologies right blockchain AI Quantum Computing alongside massive social and political upheaval the internet of the next 20 years is going to look nothing like the internet of the past 20 years so what what do we want it to look like and I think there is a road map we can learn from the Industrial Revolution was the last technologically transformative and wildly disruptive era in modern history they had incredible Innovations like the light bulb or the steam engine or the telephone which changed the course of history for all of us but it came at a cost right there was massive social upheaval environmental damage pollution across the landscape and the waterways monopolies of that time literally coined the phrase robber baron left unchecked the industrial revolution could have been deeply damaging to us to humanity and now in our time the internet as we know it the unregulated internet it is time for us to reshape it for positive good and I think based on some of the lessons of History there are three key elements key areas where we can make a significant difference in a short amount of time and they are implementation regulation and education let’s start with number one first implementation the good news is much of the technology that we need we already have it’s in our hands the domain name system a part of the industry that I work in is one of the foundational layers of the internet much of the security and encryption technology that we need to protect our data when it’s flowing across our networks and resident in our homes or businesses or data centers a technolog is available and we do use it sometimes in some places we just need to implement it everywhere two Factor authentication you probably all know it dealing with your bank you type in your password to get into your account and they send you back a code to verify and you have to enter that code in some other form it’s two factors of authentication very secure protect your profile protect your account protect your private information protect your money Banks never lose any money to factor authentication we just need to imp Implement that everywhere that we log in but reality is it’s usually us the humans that are the weak link here we need to integrate cyber awareness cyber security training just like in a previous era we implemented health and safety training in Industry to protect workers We need regular cyber awareness training for the people now to protect themselves and their organizations which brings me to number two regulation and here I actually think the Industrial Revolution is particularly instructive in that time they had incredible challenges with pollution pollution across the landscape into the waterways into their drinking water so what did they do well first they innovated they invented water filtration in that era when that wasn’t enough they also implemented regulations to prohibit The Dumping of raw sewage into the drinking water and that taught in a very important lesson during a period of incredible transformation and that was that during that kind of a period rules and regulations had to be an important part of the mix an important part of the solution for all that was going on and I think we can learn from that because they implemented rules to deal with the issues of their date like pollution but also child labor and monopolies of their era for us we have a different set of needs that we need to think about for rules and regulation but they certainly would include cyber security Sur Vance capitalism and the monopolies of our era so for cyber security we need some baseline standards that apply to all organizations and they can be simple things like reporting and transparency to the individuals or authorities impacted so they can do something about it meaningful penalties for repeat offenders or non-compliance and for surveillance capitalism we definitely need rules and regulations to protect us our privacy limit the self harms curb the misinformation and disinformation that’s so corrosive and and and third monopolies we really just need to enforce the rules and regulations that are already there that that curb the worst behaviors the worst monopolistic behaviors of big Tech we’ve done it before days of old with steel and oil more recently with uh the telephone and software Giants and it works we’ve curbed those behaviors to our benefit increased competition increased Innovation public benefit we’ve done it before we can do it again and that leads me to my third key area where we can make a significant difference for the future of the internet that we want and that’s education we all of us we must be able to determine fact from fiction we must be able to determine what is a what is a reliable source of information and a clean Network versus digital sewage we must be able to tell the difference and it starts with the youngest folks in our Societies in schools School boards K to2 internet and online education must be a key part of their learning from K to 12 evolving along with the pace of Internet Evolution starting with basic skills for our youngest students on how to work the internet and going up to Advanced critical thinking for teenagers I know that may sound like an oxymoron but they can do it I have faith they can do it they are our future they can do it but but then there’s us right the adults we continue to need ongoing training and again just like health and safety became an ingrained part of the training regime to protect workers cyber security awareness training really should be part of the modern training regime today to help protect our workers fared out online fraud or misinformation to protect themselves and to protect their organizations I love the Internet it’s Humanity’s greatest invention but it is at risk and it does need our saving and there are three areas where we can make a profound difference right now and that’s implementation regulation and education for implementation Business Leaders Tech leaders I know you’re out there right protect your people protect your organizations protect your reputation because if you don’t it’s not if something bad’s going to happen it is when so devote the resources required for regulation citizens that’s us right Raise Your Voice ask your elected officials what are you doing to protect us and government folks governments what’s job number one protect citizens protect them from foreign adversaries protect them from criminals and now more and more protect them from surveillance capitalism and the monopolies of our time and for Education parents demand more your schools and school boards will listen demand more and for students Young Folks this is and will be your internet raise the bar demand it all because the costs are too high and the risks are too great to just carry on we have the tools in our hands in our hands we just need to act so please join me in this work let’s act let’s build the internet that we and future Generations need and deserve thank you

The Internet is humanity’s greatest invention, but it is at risk and needs saving from criminals, dictators, and social media giants. The costs are too high and the risks are too great to just carry on with the status quo. Byron outlines 3 pragmatic ways to reclaim the internet we want and the internet we need.
Byron Holland (MBA, ICD.D) is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), the national not-for-profit best known for managing the .CA domain and developing new cybersecurity, DNS, and registry services. Byron is an expert in internet governance and a seasoned entrepreneur. Under Byron’s leadership, CIRA has become one of the leading ccTLDs in the world, with over 3 million domains under management. Over the past decade, he has represented CIRA internationally and held numerous leadership positions within ICANN. He currently sits on the Board of the Toronto Internet Exchange, and as Director of CENTR, the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries. He lives in Ottawa with his wife, two sons, and their Australian shepherd, Marley. Byron enjoys the outdoors and is an avid skier and mountain biker. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx