When Digital Manuscripts Burn: Information Security and Digital Heritage in Eastern Europe

Makhortykh, Mykola; Metoui, Nadia (3 June 2019). When Digital Manuscripts Burn: Information Security and Digital Heritage in Eastern Europe (Unpublished). In: Politics of E-Heritage: Production and Regulation of Digital Memory in Eastern Europe and Russia (Workshop). Marburg, Germany. 03.06.-04.06.2019.

In Eastern Europe, the growing digitalization of memory and heritage goes hand in hand with instrumentalization of the past. Memory wars raging within and between post-socialist states are increasingly projected into digital spaces, where different historical narratives compete for users’ attention. Under these conditions, both conventional and non-conventional actors increasingly weaponize digital heritage to mobilize supporters and stigmatize opponents. To do so, these actors selectively use contents of online archives and museums to promote or undermine specific interpretations of the past. Yet, as digital heritage turns into another weapon in the ongoing political struggles, it also becomes a possible target of adversarial attacks used to manipulate or destroy it.
In our paper, we discuss the ongoing digitalization of digital heritage in Eastern Europe from the information security point of view. For this purpose, we critically review existing literature on the information security in the domain of digital heritage and couple it with the discussion of known instances of adversarial attacks against online museums and collections in the Eastern European context. Using the CIA model (i.e. confidentiality, integrity and availability), we classify most common types of attacks against digital heritage and discuss the possible short- and long-term implications of these attacks for collective memory practices in the region. We conclude by proposing several strategies for countering adversarial attacks and safeguarding digital heritage which take into account specific technical and political aspect of digital remembrance in Eastern European countries.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Abstract)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ICMB)

UniBE Contributor:

Makhortykh, Mykola

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
000 Computer science, knowledge & systems > 020 Library & information sciences
000 Computer science, knowledge & systems > 060 Associations, organizations & museums
900 History > 940 History of Europe

Language:

English

Submitter:

Mykola Makhortykh

Date Deposited:

30 Jul 2019 08:49

Last Modified:

02 Feb 2024 11:40

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/131412

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