Free and safe in Cyberspace
8th edition

June 24-25th, 2021

In Cyberspace, we can’t really choose between personal freedom and public safety. It is a “both or neither” challenge, whose solution is key to bringing the democracy principle into the digital age.

After editions in Brussels, New York, Iguazu, Berlin, Geneva, and Zurich – the 8th Edition of the Free and Safe in Cyberspace (FSC8) was held for 2nd time in Geneva (and Zoom) last June 24-25th, 2022 – together with World-class speakers.

As for previous editions, we discussed how we can radically improve the level of digital security and privacy, and reconcile such a quest with the needs of legitimate cyber investigations, national security, and public security.

As an outcome of the work of 7 previous editions – World-class speakers, advisors, and partners of the Trustless Computing Association – joined to celebrate the formal establishment of the Trustless Computing Certification Body as a Swiss association, and the finalization of its governance model and statute and its Trustless Computing Paradigms.

The TCCB was presented in a 40 minute presentation by TCA Director Rufo guerreschi (video and pdf slides). 

Watch below the videos of the sessions of Day 1 and Day 2 on Youtube. Here the full post-event Press Release.

Join us for our 9th Edition in Rome, Italy, next May 11th, 2022, when we’ll focus on onboarding a few democratic nations as governance partners.

From a Digital Wild West to Digital Democracy

The insecurity and lack of democratic accountability of the IT systems that are currently available for communications and social engagement – to both ordinary citizens and politically-exposed individuals – have already erased our civil rights and have become the greatest threat to democracy, as last January 6th event in the US Capitol have shown.

No IT standards and certifications exist today that can ensure the required levels of security and democratic control of such IT systems, while enabling legitimate lawful access to prevent grave crimes. Single nations cannot solve a global problem, and no international initiatives exist that even try to truly tackle the issue in its many facets. Until now.

Such body will enact socio-technical safeguards, checks and balances, and win-win solutions that will sustainably maximize the affirmation of in cyberspace key western constitutional values, including the affirmation of unprecedented levels of digital personal privacy while ensuring legitimate lawful access; including the affirmation of unprecedented levels of freedom of speech and assembly, while enabling and buttressing a free market of ideas and facts. TCCB-certified IT will be compliant to western national legislations and downward complaints to current highest private-market security standards.

Youtube Playlist of sessions of Day 1
Youtube Playlist of sessions of Day 2

SPEAKERS

Nicholas is the Deputy Secretary General at Republic and State of Geneva, Switzerland.  As a senior negotiator, chairperson, mediator, senior lecturer, director general and deputy secretary general, has developed expertise in international trade, multilateral governance, economic, science and digital diplomacy, institutional investment. Previously Head of the Economic, Finance, Science & Innovation Section at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.

 

President of The Global Forum on Cyber Expertise Foundation. Formerly, he was the first and Acting Cyber Coordinator and Senior Director for Cyber Policy at the US National Security Council under Obama (2009-2011). And then Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the US State Department (2011-2017). Former top US Cyber Diplomat.

Timo was a career diplomat at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 30 years. Most recently he was Ambassador-at-large for Security Policy & Cyber of Netherland. Prior he was Director for Defence Policy and Capabilities at NATO. He is affiliated to the Atlantic Council in Washington DC as a non-
resident Ambassadorial Fellow.

Troels is an experienced cyber-security and privacy professional with more than 40 years experience and still a great appetite for making the Internet more secure tomorrow than today. Chairman Of The Board Of Directors Global Cyber Alliance (GCA). Formerly Head of Global Centre for Cybersecurity and Chairman of the Board of World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity (C4C). Formerly Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Barclays Bank. Board member in several leading cybersecurity. Formerly Head of EUROPOL European Cybercrime Centre (EC3).

 

Paolo is an expert in intelligence-grade cybersecurity. Founder at CEO of InTheCyber. Recently led the acquisition of Hacking Team (identified by the New York Times as one of two original makers of malware used to hack the richest person in the world. He is the organizer of italy’s leading conference on Cyberwarfare, Conferenza Nationale Sulla Cyber Warfare. and Executive Vice President of European Center for Advanced Cybersecurity, EUCACS.

 

Romano Stasi, Managing Director of ABI Lab, the Research and Innovation Centre promoted by ABI, the Italian Banking Association. Also, COO of CERTFin jointly led by Bank of Italy (Italy central banks and ABI.

For over 20 years, Rufo has been a researcher and entrepreneur in the area of leading-edge IT security and privacy, and an activist in the area of digital democracy and global governance. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Trustless Computing Association, organizer of the Free and Safe in Cyberspace conference series, and coordinators of the Trustless Computing Certification Body initiative. He is also CEO of TRUSTLESS.AI, – the spinoff startup of the Trustless Computing Association – which is building the first open computing base, ecosystem and IT systems compliant to such new certifications. 

Leading IT security expert with 30 years of experience. As Cybersecurity Lead at PwC Luxembourg, he is responsible for its entire cybersecurity practice in Luxembourg and for its entire cybersecurity practice in Luxembourg and for its annual EU-wide cybersecurity startup competition, PwC Cybersecurity Days. Previously, as Cybersecurity CTO for ATOS Group in the Benelux and the Nordics, he leads their military-grade cybersecurity offering to top organizations, including the European Defence Agency.    

Eileen is Executive Director of the Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford University (GDPI). Formerly Director of Global Affairs for Human Rights Watch. Before that she served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council, in Geneva, under Obama. She is also a former affiliate of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. Hold Maters’ in ethics and law from Harvard and Stanford.

Boris is Principal Architect at Farsight Security. Formerly Chief Cybersecurity Architect at Lloyds Banking Group. Previously Principal Security Architect at VISA. Magna-cum-laude PhD in Physics from Sant Peterburg University, Russian Federation.

Formerly Head of Private Office at European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) under Buttarelli, he curated his posthumous 2030 Manifesto. He is part of the team drafting the Data Act Proposal for the European Commission atCybersecurity and Digital Privacy Unit at the European Commission.  Christian is a cybersecurity expert with extensive experience working in European Institutions on cybersecurity, privacy, competition law, digital technology, ethics and democracy.

Nick is a proponent of secure technologies and the people who create them. He works as an independent advisor with cyber services and product firms involved in secure coding training and intrusion detection. Nick is on the Board of the CyAN network and is an Executive Advisor at the Trustless Computing Association. He is the founder and host of a cybersecurity podcast, Secure In Mind, where he talks 360° with global leaders about global cyber policy, policing, and governance. He is a Principal at Eaton Square advisory firm that aids founders and investors in technology investments. He is an active member and panelist for the European Cyber Security Organisation.

Camila is the Executive Director of Democracia Global. As Executive Director, she spearheads the mission of contributing effectively to the strengthening of global democracy at the National, Regional and International level. She executes this mission by research, managing political projects, and generating spaces for dialogues between different social and political actors in order to contribute to a reinforcement of democratic values. 

Mika is the Vice-President Cyber Security & Privacy, Global Public Affairs at HUAWEI technologies. Formerly Head of Security at NOKIA and Member of Finnish government ICT security advisory board. 2007 – 2010. Member of ENISA(European Network and Information Security Agency). Member of EU Commission NIS(Network and Information Security) platform and EU Commission security advisory board(reporting to Commissar Redding). Founding and Board Member of Trust in Digital Life. 

Experienced IT security top executive with over 18 years of experience ensuring safety and security of systems. Former Group CISO of Raiffeisen International Bank and also Former Group CSO of Erste Bank, He was responsible for the Cyber Security, Digital Security Competence Center, BCM/CM, Data protection governance and Physical security of systems. He currently sits on the IMA CISO Advisory Board. 

 

Giorgio is the Chief Operating Office of GISEV, a  multi-family office for over 40 families, with 9 offices in 5 jurisdictions.  He seats in the controlling board of Mediobanca, one of the largest Italian commercial banks.

Gerhard was from 2007 to 2019  Chief Information Security Officer and Global Head of Information Security Services at UNYSIS, an household name among global IT consultancies, with 20,000 staff globally and $3bn revenue. Gerhard was the driver of UNISYS positioning as a provider of IT security solutions and services around the zero trust approach.

Michael has twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as Chief Investment Officer at Credit Suisse, where he worked for twelve years. He has taught finance and economics at Oxford University and Princeton University. He is the author of ‘The Levelling’, which outlines what’s next in politics, economics, finance and geopolitics in the post-globalization era. He advises to a number of asset managers and family offices. A Forbes contributor, and a speaker at 2020 TED Talk conference. 

Jovan is a World-renowned cryptographer. Senior Technical Leader, Security Lab at Telecom Italia, and former Action Line Leader for Privacy, Security & Trust for EU EIT ICT labs. Action Line of one of 6 action lines of the 3BN€ EIT Digital, that brings leading close-to-market innovations to market through 8 specialized territorial nodes throughout the EU.

Dimitrios is Head of Cyber Security Architecture at UBS, where he leads a global team of Cyber Security Architects to deliver large scale solutions in Cyber Security, including Cloud Security, DevSec, vulnerability management, attack monitoring, threat intelligence, configuration and change management. He is a IT security professional with over 20 years of experience as IT security architect in the most demanding financial institutions.

Daniele is a world-renowned expert in global governance and global constituent processes towards accountable global institutions. He taught at the universities of Sussex, Naples, Cambridge, Rome Sapienza, Rome LUISS, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Harvard. Professor of Innovation, Governance and Public Policy at the University of London, Birkbeck College, School of Business, Economics and Informatics. Adviser to the European Union, Council of Europe, OECD, several UN agencies. Research Director at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) in Rome. Author of numerous books on global governance and UN reform.

 

Jawad is a senior IT hardware security architect, professor, and researcher with 20 years of experience. Senior Researcher at ETH Zürich in IT hardware security. Hold Ph.D in Computer Science from Haifa University, Israel. Thirteen years as System and SoC Architect at INTEL Corporation. Professor and consultant.

Fadrique is the Vice-President of the Association of Italian Family Officers (AIFO), and Director of the AIFO Master Academy. Previously at A.T Kearny consultancy, and Visiting Professor at ISPI – the leading Italian Studies Institute for International Affairs.

PrograM

The Trustless Computing Association is happy to announce that the 8th Edition will be held next June 24th 2021 in a hybrid format online and in-person in GenevaIt will be a special edition that will host exclusively workshops to detail a solution to Challenge D of the Four Challenges for Freedom and Safety in Cyberspace through the consolidation of the discussions and writings produced by previous editions, including the 2018 Position Paper on a Trustless Computing Certification Body.

During the 8th Edition, and the previous and following 2 weeks, we’ll gather selected speakers to previous editions, Trustless Computing Association board advisors, and other IT security and international governance experts, to discuss and define in detail the governance model and statute, and the socio-technical paradigms of a new international democratic standards-setting and certification body, named Trustless Computing Certification Body.

Such governance, paradigms and statute will need to be solid, detailed and resilient enough to sustainably solve Challenges A, B and C, and ultimately bring a sane, competent and democratic governance to our most critical digital human communications systems.

FSC8 gathered leading IT security and global democratic governance experts in workshops that – building on the work of previous editions on tackling the 4 Challenges of FSC – finalized the creation of the Trustless Computing Certification Body. (TCCB) a new international democratic governance body suitable to manage new voluntary standards and certifications for interoperable hardware and software IT systems for human communications that can shape a democratic global digital public sphere, which will be running over ordinary Internet infrastructure and standards, alongside the apps and devices our societies have grown dependent on.

New international standards and certifications are needed to foster the wide availability and adoption of IT for human communication that finally upgrades democracy to the Digital Age by realizing a global democratic digital public sphere that maximizes online all our democratic values, such as civil rights, freedom of assembly, law enforcement and public security and safety, through innovative win-win solutions.

JUNE 24TH, 2021

On DAY 1, from 4-7 pm, on Zoom, top IT security and global governance experts will discuss improvement to the socio-technical paradigms and governance of the TCCB. At 7.30 pm an in-person outdoor Covid-aware aperitif will be held in Geneva and Zurich.

-Nicholas Niggli, Deputy Secretary General at Republic and State of Geneva, Switzerland
-TBD

An introduction of the Free and Safe in Cyberspace conference series, and the need, aims and key socio-technical and governance characteristics of the Trustless Computing Certification Body initiative
-Rufo Guerreschi,
 Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association
Nick Kelly, Exec. Committee of Trustless Computing Association

“High-assurance” is a technical term for the state-of-the-art IT security in the commercial and military markets. Yet, that has not been sufficient. What socio-technical paradigms can achieve both substantially or radically exceed state-of-the-art in digital privacy and security security, achieving “ultra-high assurance”.

Introduction: the Trustless Computing Paradigms
Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association

Workshop: A workshop on achieving ultra-high security for digital human communications.

  • Jovan Golic, World-renowned cryptographer
  • Gerhard Knecht, Former Chief Information Security Officer at UNISYS
  • Jon Shamah,  Member of Exec. Committee of the Trustless Computing Association

What socio-technical principles and governance model of TCCB will guarantees both substantially unprecedented personal privacy and security, while solidly ensuring in-person offline and timely international “legitimate lawful access?

Introduction: TCCB requirements for server/network-side security and hosting legitimate lawful access: TCCB Cloud.
Nick Kelly, Exec. Committee of Trustless Computing Association

Workshop: how do we further mitigate the risks on both sides?

  • Koen Maris, Head of Cybersecurity at PwC Luxembourg
  • Nick Kelly, Exec. Committee of Trustless Computing Association
  • Mika Lauhde, Vice-President Cybersecurity & Privacy, Global Public Affairs at HUAWEI technologies
  • Paolo Lezzi, CEO of InTheCyber 
  • Troels Oerting. Former Head of the Cybersecurity Center at the World Economic Forum, and Head of cybercrime at Europol

Ultimately, 100% of the trustworthiness of TCCB relies on the quality of its governance, in terms of  short and long-term competency, democratic accountability, altruism, and resilience against huge state and non-state pressures. The challenge of approximating global democratic informed governance via remote IT interactions. What safeguards and check and balances? Which constituent process? 

Introduction: TCCB governance model and statute
Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association

Challenges: The challenges of democratic efficiency in digital global governance.
-TBD

Workshop: A workshop on democratic efficiency in digital global governance 
Participants:
-Daniele Archibugi, Global governance professor and expert 
-Camila Lopez Badra, Executive Director, Democracia Global
-Nick Kelly, Exec. Committee of Trustless Computing Association
Michael O’Sullivan, formerly professor  Oxford and Princeton, and Chief Investment Officer at Credit Suisse

The Trustless Computing Certification Body will certify IT systems aimed to radically exceed the state-of-the-art of privacy and security of communications and transactions for those law-abiding private organizations and persons that are most targeted for political or profit motives. How convincing are the TCCB Governance, Trustless Computing Paradigms and its lawful access mechanisms, TCCB Cloud, in being relied upon by those users for their most sensitive, intimate, and precious data? How can such confidence be increased? Can such services become a decisive competitive advantage for financial service organizations?

Panel Participants:

  • Reinhold Wochner, former Group CSO of Erste Group Bank, and former Group CISO at Raiffeisen Bank International.
  • Boris Taratine, former Chief Cybersecurity Architect at Lloyds Banking Group. Previously Principal Security Architect at VISA.
  • Romano Stasi, Managing Director of the Innovation Lab of the Italian Banking Association. Also, COO of CERTFin of ABI and the Italian Central Bank.
  • Giorgio Ghezzi, COO of GISEV multi-family office operating in 5 jurisdictions for over 40 families.
  • Dimitrios Tzimas, Head of Cyber Security Architecture at UBS Group.

Moderator: Rufo Guerreschi, Exec Dir. Trustless Computing Association

-Nick Kelly, Trustless Computing Association
Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, our Aperitif planned in Geneva has been moved online. Fortunately, Zoom Webinars enable a very interesting ability to create 5 Breakout Rooms where people will be assigned randomly for open networking, as similar as possible to how you’d do in a post-event in-person mingling :-). All will be move automatically to such room after the event has ended.

JUNE 25TH, 2021

On DAY 2, from 4-7 pm on Zoom, current and former public officials will discuss the possibility that leading nations may support the creation of a new Intl’ democratic body suitable to certify IT systems that ensure both the radically unprecedented security and legitimate lawful access. (Here is a 2-pager case for nations.) 

Can a new international democratic IT security certification body for digital human communications, that includes lawful access, help to protect peace and democracy world-wide, and increase Swiss neutrality, sovereignty and economic developments?

-Nicholas Niggli, 
Deputy Secretary General at Republic and State of Geneva, Switzerland (Video Message)

An introduction to the socio-technical paradigms and governance of the Trustless Computing Certification Body

-Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association
Jon Shamah,  Member of Exec. Committee of the Trustless Computing Association

Critical IT systems are increasingly insecure in light of the continued rise of both nation-state and criminal intrusions and attacks.  Diplomatic efforts to define rules of the road and hold bad actors accountable are an important part of the solution. Having much more secure critical IT systems and standards is another important part of deterrence by denial, having a safer ecosystem, and also making attribution easier.
Nonetheless, increasing the security of standards to the needed levels, especially in the area of human communications, carries the unacceptable risk for security agencies of “going dark“, i.e. not being able to intercept dangerous suspects. For these reasons – in at least some cases and possibly in a trend –  IT standards have been deliberately weakened by nations.
On the one hand, digital civil rights activists have had little to propose to improve security, taking a defensive posture against proposals for backdoors to be nationally mandated. Yet, there is very little to defend since, while mandated backdoors have been stopped, “bug-doors” are everywhere exploitable by innumerable actors at a moderate cost.
On the one hand, some security agencies routinely claim that creating safe-enough mandated national technical front-doors mechanisms – needed to mitigate collective crimes via secure messaging apps – are feasible, but never submitted detailed or reasonable proposals.
 Both security agencies and digital civil rights advocates have framed the debate as one of finding a trade-off in a “zero-sum” game, which has mostly worked fine for security agencies for security agencies but virtually eliminated civil rights online.
Can we find instead “win-win” solutions where the sum is much bigger than its part maximize both necessities creating positive feedback loops as we did in our constitutions in the pre-digital era? Can we imagine new much more secure IT security standards that apply the same uncompromising socio-technical and governance safeguards to achieve much higher levels of security but also ensure international legitimate lawful access? 

Panelists:

  • Christopher Painter, former top US cyber diplomat. From 2019-2011 Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the National Security Council.
  • Timo Koster, former Ambassador for Cyber and Security Policy of Netherlands.
  • Eileen Donahoe, Executive Director Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford University, former US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council

Moderator:
Christian D’Cunha,digital privacy expert at European Commission and former Head of Private Office of EDPS.

How can a new international IT security certification body for human communications substantially advance both personal freedom and public safety? Which socio-technical principles are needed? which governance?

Panelists:
Troels Oerting. Former Head of the Cybersecurity Center at the World Economic Forum, and Head of cybercrime at Europol.
-Christian D’Cunha,digital privacy expert at European Commission and former Head of Private Office of EDPS
Paul Nemitz, Principal Adviser on Justice Policy, EU Commission; Member of German Data Ethics Commission

The History of TCCB:
Jon Shamah, Exec. Comm. Trustless Computing Association

Moderator:
-Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association

One of the many challenges of responsible cyber state behaviour and cyber treaties is the vulnerability of systems, their complexity and forensic-unfriendliness which make attribution very hard to assess or prove/explain the difficulty. Can new international IT security standards for critical systems greatly improve the chances of shared attribution of major cyber incidents, and so increase the chance for enforceable cyber treaties?

Panelists:
-Christopher Painter, former top US cyber diplomat. From 2019-2011 Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the National Security Council. 
-Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association
Paul NemitzPrincipal Adviser on Justice Policy, EU Commission; Member of German Data Ethics Commission

-Rufo Guerreschi, Exec. Dir. Trustless Computing Association

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, our Aperitif planned in Geneva has been moved online. Fortunately, Zoom Webinars enable a very interesting ability to create 5 Breakout Rooms where people will be assigned randomly for open networking, as similar as possible to how you’d do in a post-event in-person mingling :-). All will be move automatically to such room after the event has ended.

Limited Seats are Available

organizer

The Trustless Computing Association is a non-profit organization, based in Zurich, that has aggregated World-class partners and advisors to build open IT technologies, certifications and ecosystems that can deliver levels of trustworthiness that are radically higher than state-of-the-art.

Together with its spin-off startup TRUSTLESS.AI – based in Zurich – the association has been building (1) Trustless Computing Certification Body, a new IT security standards-setting, certification body, aimed at radically-unprecedented levels of trustworthiness, while at once solidly enabling legit lawful access and (2) building the Seevik Wallet and Seevik Net, an initial open computing base, ecosystem and IT device, compliant to such new certifications.

PARTNERS OF THE ORGANIZER