IGF 2021 Town Hall #32 The future of human augmentation: gain or 'cyber-pain'?

Time
Tuesday, 7th December, 2021 (16:30 UTC) - Tuesday, 7th December, 2021 (17:30 UTC)
Room
Conference Room 8
Issue(s)

Inclusion, rights and stakeholder roles and responsibilities: What are/should be the responsibilities of governments, businesses, the technical community, civil society, the academic and research sector and community-based actors with regard to digital inclusion and respect for human rights, and what is needed for them to fulfil these in an efficient and effective manner?
Promoting equitable development and preventing harm: How can we make use of digital technologies to promote more equitable and peaceful societies that are inclusive, resilient and sustainable? How can we make sure that digital technologies are not developed and used for harmful purposes? What values and norms should guide the development and use of technologies to enable this?

Panel - Auditorium - 60 Min

Description

Human augmentation – the field that focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body - is one of the most significant technology trends today.

We’re already seeing a wide range of practical applications being deployed across the everyday areas of our lives like health and social care, sport, education and transport - exoskeletons for fire and rescue or the bioprinting of organs are just a couple of examples.

A Kaspersky report showed that most people want human augmentation to be used for the good of humanity, with 53% of respondents saying it should be used to improve quality of life. Across the board the objective for any human augmentation was to improve overall physical health (40%) or eyesight (33%).

However, amid all the excitement and innovation surrounding human augmentation there are legitimate fears among the cybersecurity experts and the wider community that too little attention is paid to the important aspect of how the cybersecurity of human augmentation can be designed. There is also a lack of awareness and that can create risks for the use of human augmentation.

Throughout history, bad actors have always exploited new technologies and the chances are little it will not be the case with human augmentation. That said, we must remain vigilant about the possible risks and be proactive so that when human augmentation becomes an everyday reality, cybersecurity is not an afterthought.

Content, goals and outcome of the event

The event aims to have a multistakeholder discussion about 1) the existing cybersecurity threats for human augmentation devices, 2) how future awareness raising activities could be created, and 3) how these cyber-risks can be addressed on the international level.

In addition to providing information and raising awareness about the cybersecurity risks in hi-tech human augmentation a deep discussion with the participants from different stakeholder-groups on ways to mitigate the existing and possible future cyber-risks for the industry, affected people, and society is planned.

The expected outcome of the session is to have concrete ideas for 1) future activities to create awareness raising and 2) possible actions by different stakeholder groups to mitigate the risks arising from human augmentation technologies.

Organizers

Kaspersky
The event is organized by Kaspersky. Speakers (see list below) represent Kaspersky partner organizations and stakeholder groups that the company works with on the suggested topic of the event.

Speakers

Speakers:

● Marcelo de Araujo, Professor of Philosophy of Law, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. 

● Ilya Chekh, CEO of Motorica (Russia).

● Eva Kaili – Member of the European Parliament (Greece) Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on the Future of Technology and Science (STOA).

● Wojtek Paprota, Founder & CEO of Walletmor (Poland/UK).

● Marco Preuss, Director of Kaspersky’s Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT) in Europe, Kaspersky.

● Jorge Quevedo, Co-founder of Robotics Lab (Chile).

● Tristan Vouga, Co-Founder of TWIICE (Switzerland).

Onsite Moderator

Arnaud Dechoux, Public Affairs Manager, Kaspersky

Online Moderator

Kate Russell, Technology Reporter, Author

Rapporteur

Oxana Sotnikova, Senior Corporate Communications Manager , Kaspersky

SDGs

3. Good Health and Well-Being
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reduced Inequalities

Targets: Many people with disabilities have only very limited opportunities to participate appropriately in professional and social life. Human augmentation helps to overcome inequalities and promotes health and well-being. It also allows humans to exceed their abilities - for example, industrial exoskeletons enhance physical strength of workers and help prevent injuries when performing repetitive tasks. But to fully enjoy what technology brings, human augmentation must be adequately protected against cyber-threats. This in turn will promote innovation and stimulate industry, which benefits society.

Key Takeaways (* deadline 2 hours after session)

Although the possibilities for human augmentation are incredibly exciting, we must remain vigilant about the cyber security and ethical risks around embedding technology into our bodies. International multi-stakeholder community (i.e. private businesses, industry, public institutions and academia) needs to continue to address the increasing need for global cybersecurity regulation for human augmentation.

Call to Action (* deadline 2 hours after session)

It is important to have more international multi-stakeholder discussions about the future of human augmentation, and to engage the global IT and augmentation community to take further steps in regards to human augmentation security development. This includes ensuring digital privacy of devices, proving different levels of access rights to stored information, and mitigating any threats related to human health.

Session Report (* deadline 26 October) - click on the ? symbol for instructions

Summary of the discussed points: 

The session covered the following issues related to digital trends of Human Augmentation and its challenges:


·   The lack of awareness in regards to human augmentation: a vast majority of people would not be aware of the ethical issues and the existence of any associated risks or cyberthreats in regards to the use of bionic devices within corporate networks. Awareness campaigns and materials should be developed and made available to all stakeholders (broader agreement).

 


·    The unclear legal framework of human augmentation (digitally augmented people): while a majority seem to agree that human augmentation should be regulated, better protected and standardized, some assess this is not yet the right time to go forward. In-depth discussions are needed at international and national levels on this key issue (needing further discussion).

 


·    The need for coordinated response: businesses, organizations, governments, academia, as well as cybersecurity companies should act together to bring an effective response to the human augmentation challenges. For instance, by introducing security policies for using bionic devices (e.g. cybersecurity policy for bionic devices).