cyber security
cannot ignore climate change so sit back
and enjoy
hi everyone my name is Chloe Mustang and
today we're going to talk about cyber
security cannot ignore climate change
and this is going to be a very quick
talk and we're going to really focus and
dive into why we are even talking about
this in the first place so let's do this
for those that don't know who I am my
name is Chloe mastagi and I'm the
founder and principal of impactive
Consulting and what I do is I help
organizations and security teams become
more you know trustworthy I'll say help
mitigate risk and drive purpose so
basically what I do is I'm a strategist
I help companies grow and to really
figure out what are the things that are
holding them back from growing and that
includes also how do you help your
security teams and how do you do better
practices on secure teams to make sure
that you're retaining them but also they
feel empowered and they feel like you're
investing in them which is needed I'm
also the co-founder of we open Tech and
also the co-founder of open Tech pledge
a podcaster for itsp magazines a change
making podcast and yes I have a book
coming out with Wiley that will also
touch on this subject that we're going
into today so let's get into the details
let's talk about our planet status so
overall
this is going to be Grim but at least we
know the information to be able to make
change but what you should know is that
sea levels are rising and oceans are
becoming warmer and also we're having
longer and more intense droughts that
are threatening crops Wildlife fresh
water supplies you know from those polar
bears that we always see in our head and
when we see it we get a little bit sad
if
it's hard right you also had the rain
turtles that are off the coast of Africa
overall our planet's diversity of life
is at risk because of the changing
climate at this time
and at this time we are looking at one
third of all plant and animal species to
be extinct in 50 years this was a study
that was done by pnas go check it out
but it is a one of those things that
when you read it and you see it and you
see on the screen it does impact you a
little bit
but overall the Australian Think Tank
IEP also predicts that at least 1.2
billion people could be displaced by
such climate related events by 2050 and
we have plenty of these evidence as
we've seen over the year uh such what
happened in Germany and the flooding we
also have seen that when it comes to the
droughts the high heat that we
experience across Europe and in the U.S
even in Canada
but we have also seen what could also
happen when displacement is going to
occur so for example you know the
majority of 30.7 million people were
actually displaced in 2020 alone and
this was due to fleeing from floods
Wildfire drought or heat waves but also
this was a report that was released by
The International Federation of Red
Cross and the Red Cross I mean the red
crescent societies
and this image that you're seeing was
taken in 2017 what about a third of
Bangladesh itself was underwater due to
flood's Devastation which actually
forced people to relocate and become
climate refugees
in Bangladesh alone is predicted that 17
of the country will be submerged by the
rise of sea level by 2050. that means
about 20 million people living there
will lose their homes
and today many people in developing
countries are suffering from droughts
windstorms on a scale never seen before
depriving them of their daily food and
basic needs the term climate refugees
was first coined to describe the
increasing large-scale migration and
cross-border mass movements of people
that were partly caused by such
weather-related disasters in the U.S we
saw that but people from Central America
trying to cross the border because of
the drought situation
and of course we also have buyers y'all
remember the the fires across California
possibly I mean I learned California I
remember the day when I opened my blinds
and I saw that everything was orange
around me I felt like as if I walked on
mars it was incredibly
surreal and also very very scary
and in the US right now and around the
world we're experiencing drought in
several different places
and over the past 20 years at this time
the researchers found that a one degree
Celsius which is about 1.8 degrees
Fahrenheit increases in mean summer
temperature increases the risk of fire
starting on any given day either by
human activity or lightning strike by 19
to 22 percent and has now increased that
burn area by 22 to 25 percent
and it's not just that we have to worry
about when it comes to fires analysis of
satellite imagery from the past four
decades has suggested that global
warming has increases the chance of
storms reaching Category 3 or higher as
we've seen recently with hurricane Ian
hitting Florida and other areas
and melting glaciers add to that rice
and sea level and which in return
increases that Coastal erosion and
elevates Storm surges as that warming
air and ocean temperatures create more
frequent and intense Coastal storms like
hurricanes and typhoons
and from data from NASA's Grace Project
we've also been able to track Antarctica
the mass
but overall in Greenland and Antarctic
Ice Sheets are losing significant
amounts of land-based ice as a result of
human-caused global warming
and now let's go into deeper about
what's going on in our Waters so at
least 14 million tons of plastic ends up
in our ocean every year and plastic
makes up about 80 percent of the Marine
debris found from surface water so deep
sea sediments marine species actually
ingest this or get entangled by plastic
debris which causes severe injuries and
death but you're also eating it too if
you eat fish
so that's good for you you're basically
eating a plastic amount on a weekly
basis of a form of the same amount as
your credit card so you know you have
credit cards or debit card yeah you're
digesting about one of those per week at
this time
lots of fun right it's in your water too
and if you're not aware of like the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch it is part
of a five offshore plastic accumulation
zones in the world's oceans and is
located halfway between Hawaii and
California it covers their approximately
surface of 1.6 million square kilometers
an area that's twice the size of Texas
and if you don't know about Texas and
state and how big it is how about this
way think about France
now imagine three of France's in one
place yeah that's basically it's pretty
massive it's estimated that it's between
1.15 million to 2.41 million tons of
plastic they're entering our ocean each
year from Rivers
and for those that aren't aware
fun fact not really fun fact but it
takes about 400 to A Thousand Years for
plastic to decompose
and that's an estimation we actually
don't we've never seen it decompose
naturally on its own for human existence
because plastic hasn't been around for
that long nor has research on this
subject been around for so many years to
be able to track it so this is an
estimation and some say that it actually
could take more than a thousand years
and this is just like the most minimum
way of figuring out how many years it
will take for plastic to decompose
and about things to note is about 66
discarded paper and cardboard is usually
recycled 27 is glass eight percent are
Plastics that are actually recycled the
reality is that we don't really know how
to recycle plastic around the world so
Glass and Metal can be recycled
indefinitely paper can be recycled about
five to seven times before it's degraded
to what would be made into new paper for
example but plus it can only be recycled
maybe once or twice and especially if
there's food in the container it will
not be processed at all because the
polymers break down in the recycling
process
and now we're going to get into the bit
about your health and how climate change
plays a role
now the thing to note about then the
root causes of climate change is that it
also are the reasons of why we're going
to see more increases of pandemic risks
one of the contributing factors for such
things is deforestation which occurs
mostly for agricultural purposes is the
largest cause of habitat loss worldwide
loss of habitat forces animals to
migrate and potentially kind of contact
other animals or people and then they
share germs and then you have large
livestock Farms can also serve as a
source for spillover of infections from
animals to people if for example
preventing deforestation that root cause
of climate change can help stem
biodiversity loss as well as slow that
animal migrations that can increase that
risk of infection disease and spread so
having a less demand for animal meat
because most of the deforestation is
also happening for the purposes of you
know having cattle on land but also one
thing to note is that having a more
sustainable animal like has boundary I
think that's how you pronounce the word
could actually decrease the emerging
infectious disease risk and lower
greenhouse gas emissions and for those
that don't know what makes up your
Greenhouse emissions it is carbon
dioxide
methane nitrous oxide and fluorinated
gases so that's four things
that make up grass greenhouse gas
emissions and you may actually see it
also as ghg by the way
and one of the things of example of
where we're seeing this besides covid-19
is that the recent Ebola epidemic in
West Africa probably occurred because of
bats which carried the disease that were
forced to move into new habitats because
the forests that they used to live in
have been cut down to grow palm oil
trees and this has been researched
significantly claiming that it was the
theories that have caused more and more
patients to have Ebola because of the
move of bats
now the future risks are not easy to
foretell because these are all basically
based on research and patterns that
we've been seeing over the years but the
reality is that climate change hits hard
on so many different fronts that matter
to when where pathogens appear including
temperature rainfall patterns but to
also it it helps to limit the risk of
infectious diseases when we do reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and make sure
that we limit global warming to 1.5
degrees
however getting that to happen at this
time where we are right now seems almost
impossible
humans and wild animals face so many
challenges for survival because of
climate change and more frequent you
know an intense drought storms heat
waves rising sea levels melting glaciers
warming oceans can absolutely directly
impact us
animals as well where we live it's going
to cause and wreak havoc on people's
livelihoods and communities
foreign
but it's not a good place for the us but
the world just in general isn't a
problem situation but overall what I
want to point out from all that slides
is to point out that climate change is
real and you may be like asking why I
know that it is real cool I'm glad that
you do and that you you know it the
problem is there are people in our
industry that still doubt that climate
change exists and that's where we have
an issue but before we do go into that
there's still more some details you
should note so
at this point we're currently heading
towards at least a three degree celsius
change and globally we are assuming that
we will at least hit 2 degrees Celsius
at this very point
and yes we do have you know the Paris
agreement which clearly defines that two
degrees Celsius as the upper limit for
global warming but also lists 1.5
Celsius as a more desirable goal because
it reduces the risk of the worst
outcomes for climate change but I want
to reiterate that we are on track to go
beyond 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. we are
looking at three degrees and more if we
do not make any changes right now
and if you're wondering what would the
difference look like Chloe well you got
heat waves fresh water heavy rainfall
prop yields sea level rise Coral
bleaching and you might be like well
that's not too bad right
sure I guess but we're not at 1.5 right
now but we're about to be
and here's another way of looking at
this you can look at the loss of plants
loss of you know insect species I know
you hate bees but we need bees to
survive so we don't want to lose bees
here but also coral reefs
um getting bleach is a terrible
situation for our you know the life
under our Waters but that extreme heat
means that we will not be secure with
food that also means we won't be secure
with water
so if we can't have food and water and
we don't have the ability to produce
energy that is effective and clean then
we're going to have issues
the collective Global goal under that
Paris climate agreement is to prevent
the rising global temperatures from
increasing to no more than two degrees
Celsius
but no more than 1.5 degrees that's
ideal but currently like I said we are
on track for almost Beyond doubling that
a potential catastrophic of Three
Degrees
so one way how you can look into this if
you don't believe me because I am not a
climate expert I will be honest my
background is being a strategist and
also infosec but I am very much
committed to wanting to make a
difference when it comes to climate
change hence why I'm giving this talk
but if you want to double check anything
please take a look at the admissions Gap
report
um there was one that was just came out
most likely this year however I have not
read it so I have read the 2021 one and
that one it basically showcased that you
know
with our pledges will probably result a
warming of around 2.7 degrees Celsius at
this time
so if implemented effectively you know
Net Zero emission pledges could limit to
a warming of 2.2 degrees Celsius closer
to the well-being of you know that two
degrees Celsius goal of the Paris
agreement
but that means we need significant
changes within the next few years and
continuously and so this report's really
good to understand what is needed at
this time
now when I brought up that whole climate
change is Real This the truth that I've
shared with you these are all backed up
with facts
um from leading institutions on climate
change but also you know the research
institutions that are doing the work and
the hard work of tracking everything
but the reality is that
why am I bringing this up at an infosec
conference well first thank you activity
for accepting this talk about climate
change it is a controversial talk in
many other places around the world
including in the US a lot unfortunately
but the reality is that we don't talk
about climate change because of the
political situation
and it's one of those things that if we
are always talking about risks and
mitigating risk security risks and all
this stuff and yet we never bring up
climate change in those meetings
that concerns me and as you're concerned
you
in other words we have Executives who
aren't doing anything or even
considering the impact of climate change
at this very moment so many decision
makers hush the subject and deny the
science which then leaves you with a
record when there is a flooding
situation or when we have incredible
fires or we have climate Refugee
situations happening at companies we are
not prepared for that because our
employers are not prepared for it
because they're not talking about it
and as a security team we need to talk
about that right
and one thing I want to point out is
that the industry that we're in uses a
lot of electricity including for
computer data centers if much of that
comes from coal to be honest it creates
this boatload of Planet warming
emissions this is relatively an easy
problem to solve if companies use
renewable energy which is expanding fast
and getting cheaper I would tell you
that Amazon Google and Microsoft have
also gotten attention for selling
technology to help the oil gas industry
extract fossil fuels which are a major
source of greenhouse gas emissions
however Google has promised to stop
doing this believe it or not
the next thing to note is that it is
possible for big tech companies you know
to help achieve that zero emissions
it is possible to do that but we need
them to be with us
what's happening is that we see a lot of
tech companies actually preventing any
change when it comes to climate change
because they're worried that it will
impact their business in a negative way
so because of that then this is becoming
an issue like when we try to have
emission standards we're going to have
ROBLOX both the UK and the EU now
actually require their countries to
achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and
that's bound to affect Tech in every
other industry because of these
countries that are moving forward or
these unions that are moving forward to
ensure that this is going to happen
now the reason I'm saying we aren't
prepared for climate change impacting
cyber security is also because what that
means is we're going to have to start
stepping up to protecting natural
resources such as water from attackers
that means this is a supply chain
situation so climate change provides us
with plenty of risks and security issues
in our supply chain because of climate
change and what it can do
the shift of employees moving across the
country and the world also does play a
role I don't know if you remember but
during the pandemic all the silly
working remotely was a little bit
difficult for some security team so yeah
it's something we have to work on but
also the increase of weather damages
does impact businesses and also your
data is being stored but also increasing
pandemics also impacts businesses and
creates security risks as well
and most importantly in my opinion
additionally is that how do we protect
Aid that's being delivered in areas that
need it the most because of climate
change because attackers may try going
after it such as funds or food or even
like survival blankets water there's a
lot of different things so
the thing is
we need a plan and we must plan and we
can do that so don't think of this as
Doom and Gloom situation we absolutely
have the ability to make a difference in
our company and on our security team and
our participation in the infosec
community
foreign
so I'm going to give you some
suggestions to prepare for the future
and I want to give a quick random fact
but for those that don't know about
carbon dioxide did you know that it can
last about 1 000 years in the atmosphere
if anything they think it can leak at
last for at least 1 000 years but once
again we don't have the data back up
that if it can go even longer than 1 000
years so keep that in mind
now the first thing you could do is
spread awareness of climate change let
people know it's real it's going to
impact us it's already impacting us I
don't know a single person where climate
change has not impacted their daily life
at this time
but one of the things you can do is to
get your company to start using ESG
Frameworks and create annual
sustainability reports and I'm not
talking about doing some green washing
reports here because that's not okay
that's never okay but there are some
that you can look into so the tcfd I
really like because what it does is that
it gets the board and also the
leadership teams to think about what
would happen to the business if we got
two degrees Celsius warmer now what
about three degrees Celsius warmer four
degrees Celsius warmer how will that
impact our operations our security teams
and our personnel and also how we run
our business so by practicing these type
of exercises and coming up with you know
incident response plans I see what I did
there
um that actually can help companies be
able to be prepared for things such as
you know
anything that climate change throws our
way in the future
um there are some other ones to look
into to go for also knowing your carbon
footprint believe it or not is
incredibly easy to note what your carbon
footprint is it is the one thing you can
calculate with the ESG standards and
Frameworks that is incredibly easier to
do than any of the other things knowing
your carbon footprint is easy to track
and to note
um you can use that
footprintcalculator.org for individuals
for companies there's the ghg
protocol.org one and they have this ghg
emissions calculation tool that got uh
released earlier this year
but knowing your waist is incredibly
important because you can note that
plastic you want to just reduce it just
overall don't assume it can be reusable
recyclable don't ever do that instead
keep reusing that same plastic item
multiple times until it breaks down in
that same with a plastic bag if you have
one use it multiple times they'll throw
it away just keep using it over and over
compost if you can go trash free it's a
little bit controversial you can't
technically go trash free but use
reusable containers and bags that could
be helpful snacks in bulk so instead of
getting individual packets and your bulk
items get something in like one enormous
bag with all your products in it also
recycle glass and paper products because
those things can be recycled always just
make sure you rinse it out properly if
you're using glass and also tin
um also buy less Believe It or Not by
buying less you're actually saving the
planet
um rethink conferences so one thing to
talk about is when we have conferences
to always have a hybrid version like
right now we have a hybrid version I
wish I could be there in person I'll be
honest
um but hybrid versions do help in many
ways because it can reduce
transportation to the conference and
away from the conference uh ghg
admissions in the US it's like that
highest contributing factor is
transportation often on your CO2
emissions when you're making decisions
when planning your conferences knowing
what how much it's going to cost the
environment by doing it and how you can
start limiting those things
also your food and energy source that's
important I like to bring up energy
source for people to know is like you
can drive a Tesla but if your Tesla is
being powered by energy that comes from
coal you're not doing anything good for
the environment by driving that Tesla so
always
be aware of warrior energy source where
is it coming from
I would dive into this part but one
thing quickly on here is that t-shirts
at conferences let's talk about it
really quickly most of the time there
are plastic fibers in there such as
Raylon and many other things but
remember it takes about 400 plus years
to decompose the majority of your
t-shirts that if you wear once or twice
that from this you know when you got
swag get thrown into the trash even if
you do donate chances are it's gonna end
up in a land waste because most of the
time those items aren't reused again
they're actually sold or they're dumped
into areas in developing places or
illegal places and if you don't believe
me let me show you why if you don't know
about this take a look at it look into
Chile and how all our clothes that you
donate not all of them but good chunk of
them or retailers that don't sell it
they send their stuff over to Chile and
it gets dumped in here about more than
half of 60 000 tons of clothes imported
each year ends up in illegal desert
landfills with dire consequences for the
environment and the local communities
like we're seeing right here
okay
but overall what you can do is buy less
Tech invest in your devices hold on to
them as long as you can if it's not
broken keep it if they don't have any
more updates on it then maybe it's time
to look elsewhere because we are in
security and we like to have Safe
products so if there's ever that then
that's the time when you would go about
it but you know making sure that we
really kind of go after copyright laws
to ensure that we can repair the devices
ourselves would be incredibly helpful
and beneficial to our environment so we
don't have to keep replacing it whenever
something is broken
um but most importantly I just want to
point out there that most of the tech
that we buy does have rare materials and
those rare materials are usually adults
and children that are mining and it's
modern day slavery in many places around
the world so it is one of those things
that every time you buy some equipment
you do not know basically the supply
chain of how it ended up in your hand so
always be careful if you cannot know
what those things are assume possibly
the worst at times so recycle programs
don't really exist on here so whatever
you do by make sure that it lasts long
invest in it and just keep it as long as
you can instead of replacing it
and last but not least here are all the
things you can do to get involved at
this time so know your waist get your
companies on board with the ESG
standards or at least start that
conversation track your carbon footprint
ensure events produce low emissions and
trash volunteer and help protect our
resources because there will be
attackers out there and this already has
been happening
um them going after electricity water
food and all that in different places
around the world so we need to step up
and protect our supply chain
also knowing to purchase less is the
best thing you can do for the
environment just that and alone and
update yourself on climate change feel
free to spread this talk as well and if
you have any questions at all feel free
to reach out to me and thank you all so
much for existing my name once again is
Chloe mizagi that is my handle over
there on Twitter if you can find me on
LinkedIn and Instagram as well happy to
answer any questions my DMs are open and
thank you all for catching my talk on
climate change and I look forward to
sharing more about that in our infosec
community
um in the upcoming weeks and months
thank you so much activity for having me
and have a wonderful day and enjoy the
rest of your conference bye everyone