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Girls in ICT

Jules Verne’s corner - ITU Kaleidoscope 2013 special session

Technological tsunami: Imagining a world without communications
 
In spite of all precautions to avoid a system collapse, the risk of one occurring can’t be disregarded. For example, the IP network was not designed to protect itself from today’s hackers causing huge security problems; and, in nature, tsunamis cause an extent of destruction we still struggle to predict.
 
The Jules Verne’s corner (JVc) encourages minds to consider improbable or even “impossible” scenarios. The collapse of the network is one with implications most of us cannot even begin to comprehend.
 
Based on today’s technology or that expected to emerge in the coming 5 to 10 years, we may not foresee a threat of a collapse. But how to predict the likelihood of a possible “technological tsunami”?
 
It is essential that we prepare for this remote possibility, addressing such issues as:
 
1.      The consequences of a network collapse and the sudden unavailability of hardware and software components of networks.
2.      Measures that can be taken today to minimize the possibility of a network collapse, and actions to be taken in the event of such a collapse.
3.      The implications of worst-case scenarios: panic affecting governments, businesses and individuals.
 
Without adequate preparation, a network collapse would have catastrophic results. The Jules Verne’s corner aims to describe the events of the day after a “technological tsunami” based on the three points above. Imagining this could yield interesting possibilities and point to the technologies – existing or otherwise – required to avoid, limit or respond to a network collapse.
 
DAY 3 - Wednesday 24 April 2013
15:00 - 16:00 
 
Moderator: Junko Koizumi, ITU-R, Switzerland
​15:00 - 15:15 Hideyoshi Tominaga, President of the Research Institute of Applied Electro-Magnetics, Waseda University, Japan, "Achieving Sustainable Communities with ICT: lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake" [presentation]
15:15 - 15:30 Andy Updegrove, Gesmer Updegrove LLP, USA,  "The Devil's in the Cloud: Our Headlong Rush into Ultimate Cyber Vulnerability"
​15:30 - 15:45
Mostafa Hashem Sherif, AT&T, USA - "A World without Telecommunications as an Extreme Event" [presentation]
​15:45 - 16:00 Open discussion