By Julia Slupska, Digital Ethics Lab at the University of Oxford

Why isn’t revenge porn a cybersecurity issue? Gendered security threats – such as tech abuse in the context of domestic violence – has often been ignored in the cybersecurity discussion. Julia Slupska – in collaboration with the UCL Gender and IoT Lab – is working on an “intimate threat security review” to address this gap.

Domestic violence and intimate partner abuse (IPA) is a frequent cause of death worldwide. A 2018 UN report found that women are more likely to be killed at home than in any other location.[1] IPA is still highly prevalent in the UK: domestic abuse-related crimes accounted for 32 percent of violent crimes in the year ending March 2017.

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For this year’s International Women’s Day, several UCL STEaPP MPA students had the opportunity to attend the seminar and training event Technology and Violence Against Women – Helping or Harming? hosted by AVA (Against Violence & Abuse).

It offered the MPA cohort the chance to learn outside the classroom, connect teaching and practice, and see first-hand how UCL STEaPP research is supporting frontline organisations active in the field of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Dr Leonie Maria Tanczer, lecturer at UCL STEaPP and lead of UCL’s “Gender and IoT” (G-IoT) research project, was accompanying the students and presented at the event. She was one of a diverse group of speakers, including representatives from the College of Policing, the charity SafeLives, and the research consultancy Think Social Tech.

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