# Event Details - **Event Name**: Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford - **Event Start and End Date**: Tue, 27 Oct, 2026 at 03:00 pm – Tue, 27 Oct, 2026 at 04:00 pm (+00:00) - **Event Description**: Strachey Lecture: Professor Alastair Beresford, University of CambridgeAbout this EventTitle: Hiding in Plain Sight: The promises and pitfalls of secret communicationAbstract:The history of secret communication has been driven by the need for both confidentiality and anonymity. Over the last thirty years we’ve seen significant progress in the digital space, with encryption now widely deployed on the web and in personal messaging apps. Protecting the identity of communicating parties is comparatively underexplored, despite the fact that the timing, frequency, and volume of network traffic can often reveal who is talking to whom, even if the communication itself is encrypted. These technological developments also sit at the centre of a wider societal debate: secure communications are simultaneously essential to protect individual autonomy and foster commercial innovation, yet they can also pose serious operational challenges to law enforcement and the oversight of public safety.This lecture explores the topic through the design and deployment of CoverDrop, a secure communication system designed in collaboration with The Guardian. We will walk through the seven-year journey from our initial research idea to a real-world deployment that now serves as the default channel by which news sources and whistleblowers contact The Guardian. We’ll explore the technical hurdles that arise when providing confidential and plausibly deniable communication inside a news app at scale, and reflect on whether these technologies, and indeed other emerging ideas in the digital landscape, are an overall benefit to society.Bio:Alastair Beresford is Professor of Computer Security and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge. His research examines the security and privacy of large-scale distributed systems, with a particular focus on networked mobile devices. His work has uncovered security vulnerabilities in platforms produced by Apple and Google, and he collaborates with The Guardian on secure communication technologies used by whistleblowers and news sources. He has received several major accolades, including the 2019 Google Security and Privacy Prize and the 2026 IEEE Pervasive Computing Test of Time Award.The Strachey Lectures are generously supported by OxFORD Asset Management https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events3/banners/dc7e8dc0-a4a0-11f1-8345-8160f1306c66-rimg-w1200-h382-dcf8f8f8-gmir.jpg - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/oxford/strachey-lecture-professor-alastair-beresford/100001997684213258 - **Event Categories**: fitness, science-fair - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: GBP ## Event venue details - **city**: Oxford - **state**: EN - **country**: United Kingdom - **location**: Oxford University Museum of Natural History - **lat**: 51.758703 - **long**: -1.255467 - **full address**: Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, United Kingdom ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/f0250a79d950758adcbbaa24ca22040ec6a8ae945fa0042f6a288c7998ca564a-rimg-w1200-h600-dcf8f8f8-gmir.jpg?v=1788114689 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford being held? - **A:** Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford takes place on Tue, 27 Oct, 2026 at 03:00 pm to Tue, 27 Oct, 2026 at 04:00 pm at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, United Kingdom. - **Q**: Who is organizing Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford? - **A:** Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford is organized by Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Strachey Lecture - Professor Alastair Beresford", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/f0250a79d950758adcbbaa24ca22040ec6a8ae945fa0042f6a288c7998ca564a-rimg-w1200-h600-dcf8f8f8-gmir.jpg?v=1788114689", "startDate": "2026-10-27T15:00:00+00:00", "endDate": "2026-10-27T16:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://allevents.in/oxford/strachey-lecture-professor-alastair-beresford/100001997684213258", "eventStatus": "https://schema.org/EventScheduled", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Oxford University Museum of Natural History", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Parks Road", "postalCode": "OX1 3PW", "addressLocality": "Oxford", "addressRegion": "EN", "addressCountry": "GB" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "51.758703", "longitude": "-1.255467" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "Strachey Lecture: Professor Alastair Beresford, University of Cambridge", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "availabilityStarts": "2026-08-30", "availabilityEnds": "2026-10-27T16:00:00+00:00", "validFrom": "2026-08-30", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/oxford/strachey-lecture-professor-alastair-beresford/100001997684213258" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "GBP", "availabilityStarts": "2026-08-30", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-08-30", "url": "https://allevents.in/oxford/strachey-lecture-professor-alastair-beresford/100001997684213258", "price": 0, "name": "General Admission" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Department of Computer Science University of Oxford", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/department-of-computer-science-university-of-oxford/26402094" } ] } ] ```