Last week I had the pleasure of organizing and translating for a guest lecture by Harry Halpin at the Department of Cybersecurity and Cryptology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty.
Topic: Protecting Metadata Against Mass Surveillance: Mixnet Technology and Its Future
Coverage:
- Modern approaches to metadata protection
- The role of mixnet technologies in secure communications
- Digital rights and privacy challenges in the era of AI
- Future trends and practical solutions in cybersecurity
Date: June 19, 2026
Venue: Department of Cybersecurity and Cryptology, Faculty of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence, KazNU
About 20-25 attendees - students, researchers, and faculty. The audience was engaged throughout: attentive listening, thoughtful questions, and real interest in the intersection of cryptography, mass surveillance, and the privacy stack.
Before the lecture, the department gave us a tour of their labs - including one running 7 small quantum computers (2 qubits each).
As a follow-up, the faculty extended Harry an invitation to teach a recurring weekly course - a strong signal of how seriously KazNU is investing in cryptography and cybersecurity research.
Big thanks to the Department of Cybersecurity and Cryptology and the Faculty of IT and AI at KazNU for hosting, to Harry for the lecture, and to everyone who came out.
You can watch the video here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uTTFY9UGj4sKnHaLC_9ELzF0o89H7VqD/view?usp=drivesdk
After that we went to see the mountains and ended the evening having some horse steaks and local wine. 