In recent years security by design has gained a prominent place in EU regulations as a fundamental principle for increased cybersecurity: if we design systems and networks securely from the start, risks may be reduced and incidents may be prevented. But how do we turn the principles of security by design into practice, and more importantly, why is it, actually, that we design unsafe or insecure systems and networks in the first place? In this talk Bibi van den Berg takes us back into the history of computer science and networking to show us that security by design was very much at the forefront of early computer scientists’ minds, but has somehow gotten lost over time — only to be ‘reinvented’ in recent years. She will explain why this happened, and show that insights from various social sciences may help us generate solid principles for secure design in our current time. Van den Berg will end her talk with a discussing of three of these fundamental principles, which she calls ‘guardrailing’, ‘islanding’ and ‘anti-featurism’.
