How to deal with security challenges in cyberspace

Rosa Marquez of the Order

The use of new technologies has brought many advantages for users and companies, but also new challenges and threats. The summer course 'The challenge of security in cyberspace: data, algorithms, social networks and the Internet of things' explores this problem.

Experts from different Spanish universities and research centers have met at the URJC headquarters in Aranjuez to talk about information encryption systems, social networks or privacy, among other topics. The objective is to detect the main security flaws associated with the use of new technologies and implement protection measures, for example through Blockchain or the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), which allows everyday elements and objects to be connected to the network.

One of the issues that most worries the European Commission is the growth of the extreme right and populism. Professor David Camacho of the Polytechnic University of Madrid recalled during the course the importance of detecting these extremist speeches on social networks, "not to persecute their authors, but to try to counteract the messages and prevent and avoid, early on, the radicalization of people, which can lead to violent attacks, like the shooting that took place this week in Copenhagen”.

The one-day course also dedicated a presentation to the influencer phenomenon and how these network stars have become opinion leaders, capable of mobilizing thousands of people and influencing their behaviour.

Among the attendees were students of the URJC Cybersecurity Engineering degree, computer scientists, psychologists and people outside the academic field, but interested in knowing more about cybersecurity.