Cybersecurity expert to discuss the importance of digital literacy

Author Heidi Boghosian’s new book explores what you need to know about living in the digital age

By Lillian Magurno, NYS Writers Institute intern

Thursday, April 16, 2026

With the rise of the digital age in the 21st century comes a key security issue: surveillance. From smartphones to doorbell Ring cameras, security and privacy have evolved alongside rapid technological advancements. Author Heidi Boghosian is an expert on the surveillance and privacy crisis.

Boghosian has dedicated her career to analyzing and exposing society’s growing reliance on technology in the digital age.

“We've normalized over the last couple of decades, a vast industry of surveillance apparatus. And by normalizing this, I think that it lays the groundwork for even more insidious infractions,” Boghosian said in a 2025 podcast interview with Macro N Cheese’s Steve Grumbine.

Boghosian is the author of several books on cybersecurity, surveillance and privacy that include "I Have Nothing to Hide": And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy (2021) and Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power and Public Resistance (2013). Her newest book Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy (2025) takes it a step further by showing how digital literacy can help with preventing a technology takeover of our lives.

“Drawing parallels between Americans and their “smart” devices, Cyber Citizens sheds light on the delicate balance between connectivity and privacy to uphold a truly democratic society,” writes the Beacon Press.

Boghosian not only writes about the dangers of surveillance and the possible consequences of an unchecked technological age, but also discusses these issues on her radio show and podcast series, Law and Disorder. The podcast focuses on “civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the U.S. government and private corporations."

Boghosian brings awareness to our reliance on technology and big tech companies for our safety and security online and how that reliance could pose a threat to our country’s democracy.

As part of a discussion on cybersecurity and her newest publication, Boghosian will discuss these important issues at the University at Albany on Wednesday, April 22. The conversation is presented free and open to the public.

Heidi Boghosian

4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 22

Page Hall, UAlbany

Multi-Purpose Room

Campus Center West Addition

1400 Washington Avenue

Albany NY 12222