Cybersecurity Breakfast #34 - encryption, a necessary evil or an underrated necessity?

AGENDA

8:30 Registration opens

9:00 Keynote – Bug Bounty, YesWeHack

9:20: Round table discussion

• Robert Goldmann, PEP Security
• Peter Liebing, Head of Sales & Marketing, Tetraguard
• Didier Hoareau, CEO, OnePrivacy

• Pierre Van Wambeke, CEO, Seezam

  moderated by Pascal Steichen, CEO of SECURITYMADEIN.LU

10:15 Conclusions and coffee

ABSTRACT

In her book Listening In: Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age, Susan Landau, a former distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems and now a professor at Tufts University, analyzed in 2018 that the debate around encryption has shifted from “privacy vs. security” to “security (of the users) vs. security (of the governments)”.

The open letter sent jointly to Facebook in early October 2019 by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Attorney General William P Barr, US Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan and the Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton demanding the company to abandon its proposal to encrypt all messages on its platforms, is a good reminder that encryption has been and remains caught in controversies that do not enable a balanced debate based on reliable information.

In old and recent history, the value of encryption has hardly been discussed beyond the inner circle of engineers, lawyers, military and law enforcement agents, political activists and privacy advocates. But encryption is much more than just a shield from bad actors or an obstacle to investigations, it is also a way of working with greater confidence, share information and innovate with trust.

A voice has been missing so far: the voice of European entrepreneurs who build solutions for everyone. Encryption Europe aims to give a voice to these innovators, and it is no coincidence if they have chosen Luxembourg at the heart of Europe to develop and grow.