UCalgary legal researchers receive grant to expand offerings in cybersecurity

Sanaa Ahmed, PhD Funding from National Cybersecurity Consortium one of the largest in Faculty of Law School's history When we think about cybersecurity, we typically think about computers, code, data and keeping our credit card numbers secure when we add the hottest new item to our digital shopping carts. But beyond the technical core of cybersecurity exists complex policy and regulatory aspects that are equally, if not more, critical than how the systems work. For that reason, the University of Calgary's  Faculty of Law has received more than $900,000 in funding from the National Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC) to develop programming to train future lawyers, legal academics and policy experts and to advise on law and policy issues about and shaped by cybersecurity concerns. The law school's research team consists of faculty members with varying backgrounds and interests, including international law (Dr. Elizabeth Whitsitt , BSc'99, LLB'04, PhD'17); financial crime and financial regulation (Dr. Sanaa Ahmed , PhD); artificial intelligence (Dr. Gideon Christian , PhD); legal issues relating to intellectual property, information security and artificial intelligence (Dr. Greg Hagen , PhD); national security and anti-terrorism law (Dr. Michael Nesbitt , SJD); and cybersecurity, platform regulation and human rights (Dr. Emily Laidlaw , PhD). Gideon Christian, PhD - "The opportunities and threats posed by new technologies are crucial for lawyers to understand," says Laidlaw.