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Using Big Data Analytics to Reinforce Security: Benefits, Challenges and the Future Scenarios

Palais des Nations, Geneva -

On 29 November 2016, at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) will organize an event on “Using Big Data Analytics to Reinforce Security: Benefits, Challenges and the Future Scenarios”.

In the past decade, the variety, volume and velocity at which data is generated have increased remarkably. Today, an extremely large quantity of data is produced in real time or near real time from different sources – such as social media, cloud-sharing and mobile applications. Data is also regularly collected through a number of sensor technologies that are embedded in different devices and is stored in a variety of databases covering areas such as environment, economics, medical and social statistics. This has resulted in the availability of huge amount of data. According to some estimates by 2020 the digital data available in the world would amount to 44 Zetabytes (i.e. 44 followed by 21 zeros). This phenomenon, where such large quantity of data is available, has come to be referred to as ‘Big Data’.

The aim of the meeting is to inform the Member States of the United Nations as well as policymakers from different sectors about how ‘Big Data’ and ‘Big Data Analytics’ can be leveraged to improve the security of individuals and the society at large.

With this objective, the event will try to inquire how Big Data Analytics can help address the problems faced by policymakers and experts in key security areas. The event will also look into the security implications related to the use of Big Data Analytics, offering some thoughts about future challenges and actions.

The first session of the event will provide a brief introduction about what is ‘Big Data’ and ‘Big Data Analytics’ and how it is becoming an important technological tool for the future. The second session will showcase some practical examples highlighting the use of Big Data Analytics in traditional security-sectors such as policing crime and crisis management. The third session will then discuss some of the key challenges that ought to be overcome, before Big Data Analytics can be used as a source for seeking solutions to the different security needs.

For more information, please contact Mr. Jayant Sangwan, Associate Programme Officer, UNICRI CBRN Risk Mitigation and Security Governance. E-mail: sangwan@unicri.it