Digital Catapult invites tech industry professionals to attend hybrid event on future of open source and cybersecurity

Co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, Bruce Perens among speakers attending

London, UK (17.06.2022) – Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology, has today announced its upcoming hybrid event, ‘Is the future for secure computer systems open source?’; to be held on 29 June 2022 from 5-8pm BST at 101 Euston Road, London. As a continuation of the UKRI’s Digital Security by Design (DSbD) Roadshow series, this latest event invites software and hardware engineers, tech team leads and CTOs to learn about the future of the industry from leaders in open source.

Hosted by renowned cybersecurity journalist and author, Geoff White, the event will begin with a keynote address by Bruce Perens, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, before proceeding to a panel discussion and audience Q&A. Perens will be joined by Amanda Brock – CEO of OpenUK, the UK body for Open Technology, and other research and industry leaders to be announced.

The event will feature presentations jam-packed with industry insights and future-gazing predictions. Speakers will explore how tech companies are already embracing open source; the current as well as future state of open source; and the case for creating a legal imperative for manufacturers to make the code of critical systems publicly available.

Further details on the speakers are as follows:

• Geoff White – Author, speaker, investigative journalist and podcast creator, White is among the UK’s leading technology specialists, working for the BBC, Channel 4 News, The Sunday Times and many more. In a career spanning 20 years, he has covered election hacking, the dark web, the personal data trade and the emergence of cybercrime as one of the primal threats to modern society. 

• Bruce Perens – Author of the Open Source Definition, the legal framework universally used for open source licensing, Perens is one of the key founders of the open source movement in software. From Pixar to HP and the UN, Bruce has been working at the intersections of open source, engineering, software, design and law for more than four decades.

• Amanda Brock – Brock is CEO of OpenUK, the UK body for Open Technology, and has previously been the Chair of the Open Source and Intellectual Property (IP) Advisory Group of the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs and was General Counsel of Canonical, one of the world’s biggest open source companies and the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu.

“Cybersecurity incidents cost businesses thousands every year, and yet most of them can be attributed to just a handful of root causes – notably software and hardware vulnerabilities. As with most things, the best means of tackling this issue is through collaboration.

“We are delighted to have such esteemed guests attending our upcoming event to explore how we can build more secure computer systems through open source,” said Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapult.

Though livestreamed via the DSbD YouTube channel, up to 90 attendees are welcome to attend in person and are invited to join the presenters for food, drinks, and further discussion during the latter half of the evening.

Register on Eventbrite to attend the event on 29 June.

To tune into the event livestream online, visit the Digital Security by Design YouTube channel

Notes to editors:

About Digital Catapult:

Digital Catapult is the UK authority on advanced digital technology. Through collaboration and innovation, we accelerate industry adoption to drive growth and opportunity across the economy.

We bring together an expert and enterprising community of researchers, startups, scaleups and industry leaders to discover new ways to solve the big challenges limiting the UK’s future potential. Through our specialist programmes and experimental facilities, we make sure that innovation thrives and the right solutions make it to the real world.

Our goal is to accelerate new possibilities in everything we do and for every business we partner with the journey – breaking down barriers, de-risking innovation, opening up markets and responsibly shaping the products, services and experiences of the future.

Visit digicatapult.org.uk for more information.

About Digital Security by Design:

Digital Security by Design (DSbD) is an initiative supported by the UK government to transform digital technology and create a resilient, and secure foundation for a safer future. Through collaboration between academia, industry and government, these new capabilities will pave the way for business and people to use and trust technology. DSbD will enable a more trustworthy digital environment, in which only expected access to data and operations are permitted while limiting the impact of vulnerabilities. DSbD will promote a mindset change around cyber security, giving the freedom to learn, trade, play, automate and collaborate safely.