Laura DeNardis, “The Internet in Everything”

Once primarily a communication network, the Internet can now link a variety of physical devices and everyday objects, from cars and appliances to crucial medical equipment. Known as “the Internet of Things,” this system blurs distinctions between the virtual and the real, and, as DeNardis argues in this groundbreaking study, confers something tantamount to political power on whoever controls it. Showing how countries can use this cyber infrastructure to reach across physical boundaries, DeNardis, a professor in American University’s School of Communication and one of Slate’s 2016 Most Influential People in the Internet, lays out the threats it poses and offers policy prescriptions to protect our future. DeNardis is in conversation with Shane Harris, national security reporter for The Washington Post.

I thought I’d say okay I saw senator

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Pressler getting up oh did you have a

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question senator boy let’s know thank

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you for a very wonderful book a lot of

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this in local politics is much more

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serious for example if someone is

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running for the school board in Missouri

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a little town or in South Dakota or

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someplace something appears on the

internet or Facebook or especially

YouTube that’s a half truth about them

and then it’s magnified and there’s no

local media to go to to get a correction

there’s no way to get it down and nobody

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pays much attention to it except the

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people who are targeted with it what can

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we do about the getting people to run

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for the school board or to run for

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county commissioner in this atmosphere

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well first let me say thank you for

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authoring the telecom Act of 1996 and

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[Applause]

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that was really a major for the way that

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the Internet has unfolded and you know

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intermediary liability and and and

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things like that but so it’s really

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interesting that you are asking a

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question that is local how do we get

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people to get interested in running for

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school boards around this particular

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issue I think the way the way that this

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is happening is in the most personal

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realms like as people I’ll answer it

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this way people ask me well what are the

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potential harms of the Internet of

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Things and especially around young

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people like what is the big deal well

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for someone who has you you probably

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have heard of the person who was a

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hacker that screamed in a baby through a

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baby monitor and the parents were

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horrified to come and find that you know

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someone was screaming and monitoring the

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baby right or the discriminatory

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practices around insurance around

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employment around racial issues in how

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data from the internet of things is

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happening like these personal things

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that happen even though there’s no

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catastrophic issue that has happened

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these personal things

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I think are what are going to and with

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the help of the media exposing them I

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feel like that the just the educational

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awareness of not only the future risks

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but the situation that we find ourselves

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in now will motivate people to get

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involved and starting local is

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definitely part of that but you know

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whether it’s local whether it’s a big

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sweeping us thing like the telecom Act

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of 1996 whether it’s acts in

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transnational organizations like the

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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names

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and numbers or standard standard-setting

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organizations or whether it’s at the UN

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level I think the big takeaway is that

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we have to as a society view

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cybersecurity as the great human rights

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issue of our time and frankly a big part

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of educating people is writing books and

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everyone here is enlightened by this

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conversation from you and we’re grateful

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you’re doing a public service by

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explaining these important things to

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people in a way that they can understand

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and making these issues not so

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intimidating and overwhelming and I

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think everyone can agree

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why Laura’s so highly regarded as

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someone who is shaping the Internet and

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I think probably for good so please

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let’s give her a round of applause and

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thank you all for being such a great

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audience that Laura will be signing

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books if you’d like to talk to her more

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thanks for coming