Dr Dan Bogdanov is the Head of Cybernetica’s Information Security Research Institute and Head of the Standing Committee on Cybersecurity at the Estonian Academy of Sciences. His research team works on international cybersecurity projects with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US Office of Naval Research, the European Defence Fund, Horizon Europe and Estonian agencies. He has also worked on information security and cryptography standardisation within ISO/IEC.
7 DECEMBER · Brussels, Belgium
Future Cryptography 2026: Building Digital Trust
There is an old saying: “the gods and goddesses help those who help themselves”. This thinking applies well to planning how we secure our digital systems in Europe. The realities of global supply chains, manufacturing and technology development capabilities shape our power over AI, cybersecurity and the cloud. But if we do not put in the effort to secure digital workflows for European people, why should anybody else?
We have set ambitious goals for digital trust: secure identities, digital signatures, wallets, sovereign infrastructure and resilient communications. Yet a gap has emerged between regulatory frameworks and the systems that serve citizens and businesses. Policies promise one thing; deployments deliver another. Closing that gap requires more than legislation. It demands that engineering, institutions and strategic partnerships keep pace with our ambition.
The Future Cryptography conference series brings together policymakers, technologists, researchers, public institutions and strategic technology users to examine how European digital trust can move from policy ambition to deployable technologies and trustworthy infrastructure. Previous events in the series have been held in Estonia, where e-government and digital trust innovation have flourished for nearly 30 years.
The events have been supported by the Czech-Estonian CHESS collaboration, which has worked on the new challenges facing Europe: migrating to quantum safety, bringing e-government into the AI age and ensuring the security of new technologies. But the December event in Brussels goes further. We will convince you that Europe can build, and that we have the talent to fulfil its promises. Europe can turn bold ideas for building digital trust into reality when regulatory ambition is matched by engineering capability, institutional competence and credible technology partners. I look forward to welcoming you to Brussels.
Dan Bogdanov
Chief Science and Innovation Officer of Cybernetica, Head of the Standing Committee on Cybersecurity of the Estonian Academy of Sciences
Programme
7 DECEMBER · 2026
09.00–10.00
Registration and Welcome Coffee
10.00–10.15
Institutional Welcome
Short welcome remarks from the host and co-organising partners (Estonian Embassy, Cybernetica, CHESS).
10.15–10.40
High-Level Keynote: Digital Trust, Security and European Technological Sovereignty
(high-level Commission representative opening keynote)
10.40–11.00
Anchor Keynote: Europe Can Execute
Strategic talk on building digital trust infrastructure in practice.
11.00–11.30
Coffee Break
11.30–12.30
Session 1: Trust But Verify
Format: three short talks followed by moderated Q&A.
Moderator: Dan Bogdanov and confirmed speakers: Fabio Ricciato, Jaroslav Řezník
12.30–13.30
Networking Lunch
Seated or standing lunch with informal networking.
13.30–14.40
Session 2: Digital Sovereignty is an Engineering Problem?
Format: moderated debate.
Moderator: Oliver Väärtnõu and confirmed speakers: Isabell Weiß, Juhan Lepassaar
14.40–15.00
Coffee Break
Informal networking.
15.00–16.10
Session 3: Everything-by-Design
Format: demo-oriented session followed by panel discussion.
Anni Lehari, Petr Muzikant, Eduardo Brito
16.10–16.30
Closing Remarks: Key Takeaways and Next Steps
16.30–18.00
Networking Reception
Drinks, light food and informal follow-up conversations.
Speakers
Dan Bogdanov
Head of Information Security Research Institute, Cybernetica
Oliver Väärtnõu
CEO, Cybernetica
Mr Oliver Väärtnõu joined Cybernetica as CEO in 2014, having previously served as Strategy Director of the Government Office of Estonia and as CEO of ELIKO Technology Competence Centre. Since his time at ELIKO, he has worked closely on a range of e-governance developments, from interoperability to digital identity. He has also worked in Sweden and Denmark, focusing on international relations and management consulting in the field of digital identity. In addition, he is a Member of the Board of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Founder and Chairman of the Estonian Information Security Association.
Juhan Lepassaar
Executive Director, ENISA
Mr Juhan Lepassaar is the Executive Director of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), having taken up his post on 16 October 2019. He has more than 20 years of experience working with and within the European Union. Prior to joining ENISA, he worked for six years at the European Commission, including as Head of Cabinet to Vice-President Andrus Ansip, who was responsible for the Digital Single Market. In this capacity, he also led and coordinated the preparations and negotiations for the Cybersecurity Act. He began his career in EU affairs at the Estonian Government Office, where he spent five years leading the national EU coordination system as Director for EU Affairs and EU Adviser to the Prime Minister.
Jaroslav Řezník
Principal Program Manager, Red Hat
Mr Jaroslav Řezník is Principal Program Manager for Red Hat’s Product Security Compliance team, where he guides standards and regulatory initiatives. His 18-year tenure at Red Hat is defined by his versatility: he is as dedicated to the Fedora open-source community as he is to ensuring that Red Hat products meet strict regulatory requirements. Beyond his work at Red Hat, Mr Řezník serves on the ENISA Advisory Group and the OpenSSL Corporation Business Advisory Committee, helping to shape the future of cybersecurity in Europe and globally.
Anni Lehari
Project Manager, Estonian Information System Authority
Ms Anni Lehari is a digital strategy and AI governance expert helping to shape the next generation of digital government in Estonia. With a background in law, she has worked on national digital strategy, public sector innovation and strategic planning at Estonia’s Government Office and the Government CIO Office. She now works at the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA), where she leads the Aruait (Reason Reserve) project on trusted AI agents in public services. She enjoys tackling difficult questions where technology, law and people’s real needs meet.
Petr Muzikant
Security Engineer, Cybernetica
Mr Petr Muzikant is a Cyber Security Engineer at Cybernetica, currently focusing on the implementation of post-quantum (PQ) cryptography. His work involves transforming existing software to make it safe against quantum computers, while collecting and sharing engineering insights, obstacles and solutions. So far, he has focused mainly on Estonian e-governance applications, as well as several open-source projects. He firmly believes that everyone should start evaluating their PQ migration now, and he is keen to help with its practical implementation.
Fabio Ricciato
Statistical Officer, Eurostat
Mr Fabio Ricciato works in Eurostat’s Innovation and Digital Transformation unit (Unit 02), focusing on access to and reuse of privately held data for statistical production, and on the application of privacy-preserving computation to official statistics. He joined the European Commission as a Statistical Officer at Eurostat in 2018. Between 2004 and 2017, he worked as a researcher, professor and research manager at academic institutions and research organisations across Italy, Austria and Slovenia. He graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1999 and obtained a PhD in Information and Communication Technologies in 2003, both from Sapienza University of Rome.
More speakers to be announced.
Future Cryptography 2026
7 December · Brussels, Belgium
Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU (Rue Guimard 11/13, 1040 Brussels, Belgium)
The conference is supported by the Cyber-security Excellence Hub in Estonia and South Moravia (CHESS) and funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101087529.