As part of the Internet Days in Stockholm, Sweden, OpenForum Europe, together with the Swedish Public Sector Network Open Source and Data, are organising a track on Cybersecurity Security, sustainability and Digital Sovereignty. Open source software is a critical and extensive part of our common digital infrastructure. It presents both opportunities and risks. Opportunities such as enhanced interoperability of infrastructure and services within and across borders, as well as reducing dependencies and lock-in to individual vendors and system solutions. The risks stem from sustainability issues and include the fact that many open source applications are maintained by volunteers and there is a general under-investment in maintenance. This in a rapidly changing geopolitical and digital environment, where vulnerabilities, introduced knowingly or unknowingly, are increasingly at risk of being exploited by malicious third parties with potentially major consequences.

As the public sector intends to reuse more of each other’s digital infrastructure, there is a growing need to ensure that what we do is secure. Therefore, this thematic track aims to show the extent of open source software in our own and shared digital infrastructure, and its importance for our digital sovereignty and cybersecurity.

In January 2023, Sweden will take over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. Already today, we can see some challenges and areas that will be important to address in the public sector in the coming years.

This track will look at these questions from an international perspective and the work being done globally within, for example, the US government in collaboration with the technology industry, the cross-sector collaboration taking place in the private sector, and the transatlantic work between North American and European countries that is beginning to take shape. This will be followed by a panel taking a European perspective. Finally, we will delve deeper into how Sweden can lead and contribute to the development of a sustainable digital infrastructure with open software as a central building block.

Click here for more info