Roundup of Security and Privacy Themes at SXSW Interactive 2016

Every year, hundreds of thousands of thought leaders flock to Austin, TX to share ideas, discuss pressing trends, and network with other professionals at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. This year, conversations around privacy and security took center stage. Here’s a glimpse of the privacy and security themes at this year’s conference.

The debate over privacy and encryption.
President Obama kicked off the SXSW conference with a familiar subject: whether Apple should cooperate with law enforcement in cracking the iPhone’s existing security measures to access encrypted information. Obama says privacy trade-offs may be worth the extra security, especially when public safety is involved.

USA Network’s Mr. Robot also made an appearance at the conference, a show that tackles issues from cyber security breaches to corporate greed. The show’s creator Sam Esmail revealed that the second season will explore the themes of privacy and data encryption.

“It’s a really important issue that we’re really going to get into in the next ten years or so,” Esmail said. “Because it really brings up the idea of the rights to privacy and do we have them, do we not?”

The debate over encryption was a reoccurring theme at this year’s conference, and one that will have  an impact on us all when it comes to security and privacy.

Public and private sector responsibility around cybersecurity.
Congressman Michael McCaul, Admiral Bobby Inman, and security industry experts Joe Ross and Dena Graziano discussed a broad range of cyber threats in their panel at SXSW Interactive. More specifically, they shared insights around the financial and political incentives driving hackers, and what the government and private sectors are doing to protect American citizens. Congressman McCaul expressed concern that the country is not doing enough to protect against the threats, which could affect us all.

ExtremeTech provides an excellent recap of the panel, which dives into a variety of cyber threats impacting the military, private sector and the public.

Privacy and security themes were seen in some of the biggest technology conversations happening at SXSW Interactive this year. For more information on privacy and security trends happening around you, visit IDnotify’s Tips and News pages.