So much for a ‘world without borders’? Countries are marking their territory in cyberspace

So much for a ‘world without borders’? Countries are marking their territory in cyberspace

Atlantic Council
3 February 2022

Auteur

Alix Desforges and Aude Gery published an article on the website of the American think tank Atlantic Council, entitled “So much for a ‘world without borders’? Countries are marking their territory in cyberspace”.
You can find it here 

It is based on their joint article in French “Cyberespace: d’un village global à un espace aux multiples frontières” published in the May-June 2021 issue of the journal Diplomatie. Find it here 

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Special issue on “Cyberstudies”

Special issue on “Cyberstudies”

Études Internationales (Laval University)
3 February 2022

Auteur

Several GEODE researchers contributed to the journal Études internationales (scientific journal of the École supérieure d’études internationales de l’Université Laval) for a special issue on “Cyberstudies” edited by Sébastien-Yves Laurent.

Frederick douzet, Aude Géry and François Delerue with “International law and norms for cyberspace: ambiguities and geopolitical instrumentalisation”

Julien Nocetti with “An arranged “cyber-marriage”? Realities and implications of cyber cooperation between Russia and China“.

More information on this special issue here 

 

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From the geopolitical fragmentation to the digital fragmentation of Ukraine, 2013-2020

From the geopolitical fragmentation to the digital fragmentation of Ukraine, 2013-2020

Soutenance de thèse
3 February 2022

Auteur

Congratulations to Louis Pétiniaud, officially a doctor in geopolitics since December 2, 2021. On this date, this GEODE and IFG researcher had the opportunity to defend his excellent thesis entitled “From the geopolitical fragmentation to the digital fragmentation of Ukraine, 2013-2020”.

His jury was composed of : 

  • FILLER André, Director of the thesis, Professor of Universities, University of Paris 8
  • DOUZET Frédérick, thesis co-director, University Professor, University of Paris 8
  • RADVANYI Jean, University Professor Emeritus, INALCO (rapporteur)
  • AREL Dominique, University Professor, Ottawa (rapporteur)
  • MEDINA Lucile, Senior Lecturer HDR, University of Montpellier
  • SALAMATIAN Kavé, University Professor, University of Savoie

Louis Pétiniaud is now a post-doctoral fellow at the GEODE laboratory.

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“Where do digital traces lead us? Practices and contributions of OSINT to social sciences”

“Where do digital traces lead us? Practices and contributions of OSINT to social sciences”

GEODE and IRSEM Seminar
3 February 2022

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This seminar on the theme of OSINT was held on Monday 29 November at the Condorcet Campus in Aubervilliers. It gathered 176 people during the day, of which more than 50% were young people under 25 years old, especially students.

Organised by the GEODE (Geopolitics of the Datasphere) research centre and the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School (IRSEM) in partnership with Paris 8 University, la Fabrique Défense (Ministry of Defence) and the French Institute of Geopolitics (IFG), it was an opportunity to discuss the use of OSINT in particular in the context of geopolitical research and analysis, but also in other areas such as defence, cybersecurity, IT professions and journalism.

The day began with introductory remarks by the organisers, Kevin Limonier, deputy director of GEODE, and Paul Charon, director of the “Intelligence, anticipation and hybrid threats” domain at IRSEM. This was followed by the presentation of Viginum (Vigilance and Protection against Foreign Digital Interference), a new public agency for the fight against information manipulation attached to the Prime Minister’s office and placed under the General Secretariat for Defence and National Security (SGDSN).

The first round table “OSINT as an operational practice” was then opened with Roman Adamczyk (EU Disinfo Lab), Hugo Benoist (OSINT-FR), Mathieu Gaucheler (Maltego), Romain Mielcarek (Journalist) and Clément Audebert (Preligens). They were invited to present their structure and their respective work and to answer questions from the audience. We were able to learn, for example, about the difficulties encountered during the investigations carried out by the EU desinfo Lab, a Brussels-based NGO. Journalist Romain Mielcarek pointed out that OSINT is a term from the world of intelligence and that each discipline using this method of investigation must define its own ethical framework. OSINT is only one of several research methods that should not exclude the physical field.

In the afternoon, the second round table “Methodology and OSINT: a tool for research” gave the floor to four researchers on their experience with this method of collecting information.
– Léa Ronzaud (Graphika) told us about the tools used for her team’s unsuccessful investigation to find the person responsible for distributing toilet paper bearing the image of Joe Biden in Times Square.
– Hugo Estecahandy (GEODE) gave us an introduction to the functioning of bitcoin based on information found on the Égalité et Réconciliation website.
– Marie-Gabrielle Bertran (GEODE) gave two examples of OSINT on the Russian internet, the first relatively open and then on grey data (leaks) based on two cases: the theft of data from SyTech, a subcontractor of several Russian official bodies, and the attack on the Sands group in Las Vegas by a group of Iranian hacktivists
– Finally, Ksenia Ermoshina (CNRS) presented a video of her research on the consequences of the annexation of Crimea for the region’s internet infrastructure.

The session “Epistemology of OSINT: contributions and limits for the social sciences” closed the day. It provided some perspective on these investigations in the “digital field”, with reflections on the value of the data collected through these methods, on ethics and on the limits of their use in the framework of a research project. Hervé Letoqueux, president of Open Facto, reminded us what “responsible OSINT” is, namely information retrieved “without guile or stratagem”. The other speakers, Rayya Roumanos (IJBA), Kevin Limonier (GEODE), Paul Charon (IRSEM) and Fabien Laurençon (IRSEM), gave their views on the ethics of OSINT and on the need to supervise and organise this new field of research.

The GEODE team is very pleased to have participated in the organisation and content of this conference, which was rich in exchanges and feedback.

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Contribute to IGU 2022 on geography of the datasphere

Contribute to IGU 2022 on geography of the datasphere

The Centennial Congress

13 January 2022

Pr. Frédérick Douzet awarded €2.5 million ERC grant for her research on Geopolitics of Internet data routes

Introducing the Humanitarian Cybersecurity Center!

The Russia Program, the new university-based analytical center created by the George Washington University in partnership with GEODE

The Legal Protection of International Organisations’ Data – Report by Aude Géry and Anne-Thida Norodom

GEODE is hiring a post-doctoral fellow!

REPORT – The discreet action of Russian channels in Western conspiracy circles

You can now contribute until 18th of January to the panels proposed by GEODE researchers at the International Geographical Union Congress 2022 to be held in Paris from 18 to 22 July.
 

 Panel 1: Cartography of the datasphere
 Read the description of the session here.

 Panel 2: Political geographies of data 
 Read the description of the session here.

                             Submit your proposal on the IGU website                                                                (IGU Commission Session, category Political Geography)

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Mapping Connectivity and the Digital Space in Central Asia

Mapping Connectivity and the Digital Space in Central Asia

RIPE
22 November 2021

Auteur

The RIPE has chosen to fund two projects during the year 2021 including that of our GEODE researchers Louis Petiniaud, PhD student; Kevin Limonier, assistant director who is supervising the project as well as Loqman Salamatian, PhD studen at Columbia University.

This research project makes the connection between Internet and network mapping combined with techniques and methods of cartography. It will explore and develop methods aiming at better understanding interactions between the Internet and the topographical and geopolitical space.

The project will focus on the macro-region of Central Asia (focusing on Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan). The researchers intend to produce a comprehensive and diverse set of maps and visualisations that provide insights on the local Internet as situated in the geographical and geopolitical context of Central Asia.

It is an almost enclaved network, with limited connections to the major networks of the Internet, and with few Internet infrastructures. The structure of the network is undergoing changes, and may be bound to change at a faster rate in the coming months, given the technical and geopolitical investments of foreign actors in the region

The primary objective of the project is to develop a cartography of the digital space at three levels: routing architecture, data paths, and latency, and to elaborate methods to apply them to topographical maps that will include geographic and geopolitical qualitative data.

Find all the information about this project on the RIPE website here

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Round Table “Digital Sovereignty: Discourses and Practices” Oct. 20, 2021

Round Table “Digital Sovereignty: Discourses and Practices” Oct. 20, 2021

Event

Speakers

Since the 1990s, the growth of data flows and the broader digital transformation were often described as important drivers and accelerators of a global integration and the formation of a post-territorial world. However, this vision of an open and networked world quickly came up against geopolitical realities. Authoritarian states – in particular Russia and China – were the first to assert in the 2000s their desire to exercise their regal power in the digital domain. Over the past decade or so, this idea has spread throughout the world, taking very different forms from one country or region to another. The concept of “digital sovereignty” has emerged as the catalyst for this new strategic posture of States, but it gives rise to many and sometimes antagonistic discourses. Far from being a neutral and universal concept, “digital sovereignty” appears rather as a protean representation used by national and international actors to legitimize policies and practices, and to spread their values in the digital space.

            For more than two years, the GEODE center (Geopolitics of the Datasphere) at the University of Paris 8 and the “Discourses and Practices of Digital Sovereignty” project at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg have brought together some forty researchers in the humanities, social sciences and computer science to establish a panorama of the different approaches to “digital sovereignty” around the world. The results of these discussions will be published in an international book to be released in 2022.

We invite you to come and discover this collective work, during a round table with some of the authors on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 – 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

The event will take place in a hybrid way :

  • On site at the Condorcet Campus (Centre des Colloques, Salle 100, 2 rue des Fillettes 93300 Aubervilliers). Covid certificate mandatory
  • In videoconference (link sent upon registration)
Register

Among the speakers:

  • Frédérick Douzet (Prof. Dr.), Professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics (Paris 8 University), GEODE director;
  • Georg Glazse (Prof. Dr.), Professor at Erlangen-Nürnberg University;
  • Rogier Creemers (Dr.), Associate Professor at Leiden University;
  • Amael Cattaruzza (Prof. Dr.), Professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics (Paris 8 University);
  • Alix Desforges (Dr.), Postdoctoral student at GEODE;
  • Max Münßinger (M.A.), PhD candidate at Erlangen-Nürnberg University;
  • Clotilde Bômont (M.A.), Research fellow at GEODE, PhD candidate at Panthéon-Sorbonne University;
  • …
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Loqman Salamatian, Frédérick Douzet, Kavé Salamatian & Kevin Limonier “The geopolitics behind the routes data travel: a case study of Iran”

Loqman Salamatian, Frédérick Douzet, Kavé Salamatian & Kevin Limonier “The geopolitics behind the routes data travel: a case study of Iran”

Journal of Cybersecurity
17 September 2021

Authors

Read the article co-authored by Loqman Salamatian, Frédérick Douzet, Kavé Salamatian et Kevin Limonier “The geopolitics behind the routes data travel: a case study of Iran” in the Journal of Cybersecurity.

Abstract: “In November 2019, in the wake of political demonstrations against the regime, Iran managed to selectively cut off most traffic from the global Internet while fully operating its own domestic network. It seemingly confirmed the main hypothesis our research had led us to, based on prior observation of data routing: Iran’s architecture of connectivity enables selective censorship of international traffic. This paper examines, through the case of Iran, how states can leverage the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) as a tool of geopolitical control and what are the trade-offs they face. This question raises a methodological question that we also address: how the analysis of BGP can infer and document these strategies of territorialization of cyberspace. The Internet is a network of networks where each network is an autonomous system. Autonomous systems (ASes) are independent administrative entities controlled by a variety of actors such as governments, companies and universities. Their administrators have to agree and communicate on the path followed by packets travelling across the Internet, which is made possible by BGP. Agreements between ASes are often confidential but BGP requires neighbouring ASes to interact with each other in order to coordinate routing through the constant release of connectivity update messages. These messages announce the availability (or withdrawal) of a sequence of ASes that can be followed to reach an IP address prefix. In our study, we inferred the structure of Iran’s connectivity through the capture and analysis of these BGP announcements. We show how the particularities of Iran’s BGP and connectivity structure can enable active measures, such as censorship, both internally and externally throughout the network. We argue that Iran has found a way to reconcile a priori conflicting strategic goals: developing a self-sustaining and resilient domestic Internet, but with tight control at its borders. It thus enables the regime to leverage connectivity as a tool of censorship in the face of social instability and as a tool of regional influence in the context of strategic competition.”

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GEODE at the 34th International Geographical Congress

GEODE at the 34th International Geographical Congress

IGC
19 August 2021

Authors

On Wednesday, August 18, several GEODE researchers presented the results of their research during the 34th edition of the International Geographical Congress.

From 12:30 to 1:30 pm, Amaël Cattaruzza chaired the first part of the panel “Geopolitics of the Datasphere” which focused on the politics of data:

  • Clotilde Bomont and Amael Cattaruzza – “From a technical Component to a geopolitical object : cloud computing, a security issue for France”.
  • Charlotte Escorne – “Strategic issues of 5G deployment in French-speaking Africa”.
  • Ilan Scialom – “Bringing the concept of coopetition into the field of political geography: the example of Israel and Saudi Arabia in digital security”.
  • Margot François – “Analyzing the Cuban connection: several ‘digital spaces’ for a geopolitical approach”.

From 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. (GMT), Alix Desforges chaired the second part of the panel on the theme “Mapping the Routes of the Internet: Data, Topologies, Power” which included the following presentations:

  • Louis Pétiniaud, Loqman Salamatian and Colin Gérard – “On a collaborative effort to map the internet”
  • Loqman Salamatian, Louis Pétiniaud and Kavé Salamatian – “The journey, not the destination matters: Untangling data and sovereignty in the Far West”
  • Hugo Estecahandy – “The geopolitical stakes for cryptocurrencies in Russia through the analysis of their mining industries in Eastern Siberia”
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Kevin Limonier & Marlène Laruelle “Beyond “hybrid warfare”: a digital exploration of Russia’s entrepreneurs of influence”

Kevin Limonier & Marlène Laruelle “Beyond “hybrid warfare”: a digital exploration of Russia’s entrepreneurs of influence”

POST-SOVIET AFFAIRS
19 August 2021

Author

Read the article co-authored by Marlène Laruelle and Kévin Limonier “Beyond “hybrid warfare”: a digital exploration of Russia’s entrepreneurs of influence” for Post-Soviet Affairs, Volume 37, Issue 4.

Abstract : “This article argues that to capture Russia’s influence abroad, one needs to comprehend the country’s “gray diplomacy” as a neoliberal realm open to individual initiatives. We define “entrepreneurs of influence” as people who invest their own money or social capital to build influence abroad in hopes of being rewarded by the Kremlin . We test this notion by looking at both famous and unknown entrepreneurs of influence and their digital activities. We divide them into three broad categories based on their degree of proximity to the authorities: the tycoons (Yevgeny Prigozhin and Konstantin Malofeev), the timeservers (Alexander Yonov and Alexander Malkevich), and the frontline pioneers (the Belgian Luc Michel). An analysis of the technical data documenting their online activities shows that some of these initiatives, while inscribed into Moscow’s broad aspirations to great powerness, are based on the specific agendas of their promoters, and thus outlines the inherent limits of Moscow’s endeavors.”

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