$3 million collaboration
Photo: Contributed
Online child sexual exploitation could soon become a thing of the past, thanks in part to a group of unlikely heroes: graduate students at Canadian universities, armed with big data.
The offensive comes as part of a new partnership signed between Kelowna startup Two Hat Security and Mitacs, a national not-for-profit research and training organization.
The five-year, $3 million collaboration will support development of Two Hat’s cutting-edge cyber security and chat filtering software, through research-based internships with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
“This project would be impossible without the support of Mitacs,” says Chris Priebe, CEO of Two Hat Security. “By connecting our business with student interns we’re tapping into researchers at the top of their respective fields who are not afraid to tackle the impossible.”
Students from Simon Fraser University, University of Manitoba, and Université Laval will take part in internships that apply big data research to identify, monitor, and stop cases of online sexual exploitation in their tracks.
The research will contribute to artificial intelligence software that detects new child sexual abuse material before it can be published on the internet — thereby preventing offenders from being able to access or distribute abusive content in the first place.
“Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will transfer theory to cyber-world application, using their research expertise to develop technologies that will help protect children and teenagers online,” says Alejandro Adem, CEO and Scientific Director of Mitacs. “We’re proud to partner with Two Hat Security on Safer Internet Day to support the development of cyber security software and the next generation of tech talent in Canada.”
The internships are funded through Mitacs’ Accelerate program, an initiative that connects Canadian businesses to universities for research projects. Two Hat Security will host up to 200 internships over the next five years through the program.
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