Author Archives: brian

Annual Report 2015

ConComms Annual Report 2015

We had an amazing year in 2015, we trained nearly 400 people in secure communication, legal ethics and mass surveillance, and I am excited that over 150 of those people have been attorneys and law students. We also provided training to 278 civil society leaders from 35 countries. We have found that a wide range of audiences – from lawyers who are a part of the NY County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) Bar Association, to attorneys who serve with the Movement for Black Lives, journalists and human rights activists from around the world – are invested in developing secure communications capacities. We also got some great media at the end of the year with NY Mag writing a piece about our trainings and a solid video of our presentation and debate at a accredited continuing legal education program at NYCLA.

Please find our 6pg annual report here:

Annual Report 2015

@ BK Library: Emerging Issues in Cybersecurity, Professional Ethics and Technology: Tools for Today

Emerging Issues in Cybersecurity, Professional Ethics and Technology: Tools for Today @ BK Library

http://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/emerging-issues-cybersecu-central-library-info-comm-012216

Friday, January 22, 2016 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Central Library, Info Commons Lab

We have reached a tipping point on the issues of professional ethics, secure communications, and data security. From criminal defense attorneys representing domestic clients to library staff assisting patrons with online research and basic technology access to journalists needing to keep their sources safe, all professionals are impacted by the new political and technological reality of multi-state mass surveillance technology. As the world’s highest legal official for counter-terrorism and human rights, the UN Special Rapporteur, concluded in a recent report on cybersecurity, “The hard truth is that the use of mass surveillance technology effectively does away with the right to privacy of communications on the Internet altogether.”

But there are still steps we can, and should, take as individuals and as professionals to protect our own and others’ data. In this session we will discuss the current challenging climate and help participants—journalists, librarians, attorneys, and anyone else who is interested—understand how to ethically engage with information technology. There will be time at the end for questions about specific privacy-protecting tools, so bring your laptop or other device.

Jonathan Stribling-Uss, Esq is the director of Constitutional Communications, a nonprofit organization that specializes in information security for professionals and civil society organizations. He has led trainings and CLEs for nearly two hundred attorneys on cybersecurity, privacy rights, and attorney-client communications with the NYCLA Bar Association, Law For Black Lives, and the Continuing Legal Resource Network at CUNY.  He has also trained journalists, grantors, activists, and technologists at the Center for Constitutional Rights, Thoughtworks, the International Development Exchange, the Bertha Foundation, the Legal Clinics of CUNY School of Law, and Brazil de Fato.

Age Group: Adults

Why Lawyers Need Encryption: Video presentation and debate about encryption and ethics at New York County Lawyers Association

Video presentation and debate about encryption and ethics at New York County Lawyers Association

 

“Ethics and Technology” is a accredited presentation and debate on encryption, mass surveillance, legal ethics and attorney client communications at the recent NYCLA (NY County Lawyer’s Association) Continuing Legal Education. Five attorneys debated the question raised by Constitutional Communications about the need to change the attorney client ethics Rule 1.6 to require the provision of user side open source encryption for attorney client communication.

The full 3 hour CLE video can be viewed on NYCLA’s site for the cost of a CLE here.

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