Carnegie Mellon National Security Panels

PHOTOS | VIDEOS 

The Overseas Press Club and Ford Foundation journalism program joined Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to host an immensely informative, erudite discussion of national security, global hackers and the future of journalism last March 24.

For the 100 people attending and another 150 watching a live stream broadcast, the panelists involved with “Edward Snowden, National Security and the Future of Journalism” were insightful, provocative and probing. The event, put on with the help of longtime OPC member Chriss Swaney, was also a minor footnote in Pittsburgh journalism history since it marked the first time (at least that anyone can recall) that top editors from the two warring Pittsburgh newspapers appeared at the same venue.

The first panel, chaired by Pittsburgh Tribune Review managing editor Jim Cuddy, focused on cyber crimes and the threats to all of society. Tribune Review investigative reporter Andrew Conte, who has been covering hackers extensively, and Carnegie Mellon assistant research professor Nicolas Christin, who helped crack the “Silk Road” case, explained risks to the public from global hackers. So did FBI cyber security squad leader J. Keith Mularski, the supervisory special agent, who recently popped onto page one across the country as the head of the investigation that led to the indictments in Pittsburgh of Chinese military officials for stealing corporate secrets from Alcoa, U.S. Steel and other companies.

The second panel, chaired by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Executive Editor David Shribman, starred Edward Snowden’s lawyer Ben Wizner, who appeared via video from the American Civil Liberties Union office in New York, to defend his client as a whistle-blower who has brought new clarity to the facts surrounding the build-up of a gigantic national security apparatus. Post-Gazette Deputy Managing Editor Mark Rochester provided the journalistic perspective, while University of Pittsburgh Law Professor David Harris outlined the legal issues, such as privacy versus security, that impact us all. Carnegie Mellon CyLab co-Director Virgil Gligor explained the complex challenges that face government agencies as they try to fend off cyber attacks that can originate from state sponsors or criminal organizations.

The Tribune Review covered the event: http://bit.ly/1uRiHEz