Challenge the Cyber is a foundation that actively fosters security skills in young hackers (<25 y). In this talk a couple of our (former) participants will share their experience and talk about the varieties of events that the foundation runs throughout the year and how you can prepare and participate. This includes the yearly CTF, a Cyber bootcamp, recurring training events with CTF team Superflat and the participation at the European Cybersecurity Challenge.

There's an overall shortage of cyber security experts. Challenge the Cyber (CTC) is the foundation that actively fosters security skills in young people and works on closing the gap between the need of experts in companies and talented young people who want to become these experts.

CTC run a national hacking competition (CTF) with roughly 120 participants each year. The best (30-40) performers are then invited to a week long bootcamp in the summer in which highly technical workshops are given, a lot of attention is spent on team building and eventually a team of 10 players is selected for the European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC). At ECSC team NL is supported again by CTC.

Next to the competition there are side events where anyone can participate, such as playing CTFs with team Superflat. All in all, young people develop and progress through the years to our absolute elite in cyber security. (No, I'm not exaggerating here. We've got zero days as proof :D )

The presentation will tell all that and more but the story will be told with anecdotes by active participants and volunteers of the foundation. They will give an inspiring insight into the world of the young star hackers and their journeys throughout CTC.

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/8VF3QU/

De Tweede Kamerverkiezingen komen eraan en de digitale vraagstukken liggen op tafel. Wat moet het volgende kabinet doen op het gebied van cyberveiligheid, AI, privacy en digitale autonomie? Welke keuzes zijn écht nodig, en wie durft ze te maken?

Tijdens WHY2025 organiseren we Het Grote Cyber Debat waar politici het gesprek aangaan met de mensen die dagelijks aan de knoppen zitten: ethische hackers, open source-ontwikkelaars, securityprofessionals en AI-tinkerers. Scherpe vragen en eerlijke antwoorden, van en voor een publiek dat weet waar het over gaat.

Onlangs presenteerde het huidige kabinet de vernieuwde Nederlandse Digitaliseringsstrategie. Maar de toekomst? Die wordt straks geschreven in partijprogramma’s. Daarom nodigen we juist nu Kamerleden, bestuurders en beleidsmakers uit om te luisteren, te leren en te debatteren met de tech-community vóór de verkiezingskoorts losbarst.

**Astrid Oosenbrug (GroenLinks/PvdA)**

Voormalig Tweede Kamerlid voor de PvdA (2012–2017); speerpunten cybersecurity en LHBTI’ers, daarna oprichter van het Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure, en nog steeds werkzaam in cybersecurity.

**Erik Kemp (Volt)**

Fractievoorzitter van Volt in de gemeenteraad van Enschede. Doet een master Cybersecurity aan de Universiteit van Twente.

**Haitske van de Linde (VVD)**

VVD-raadslid te Hilversum, bij het Waterschap Rijn en IJssel programmamanager Wetgeving Data en Informatie. En in een grijs verleden nog even lijsttrekker van Leefbaar Nederland.

**Janarthanan Sundaram (D66)**

Directeur van glasvezel-leverancier Bright Access en lid van de Landelijke Verkiezingscommissie van D66.

**Sebastiaan van ’t Erve (GroenLinks)**

Volgens zijn LinkedIn “inwoner van de gemeente Lochem” - maar hij was er ooit ook burgemeester, was IT-politicus van het jaar, en promoveert nu op cybercrisis-management bij gemeenten.

En meer!

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/CJZV8J/

Birdsong is all around us, but is there a deeper meaning? Can computer analysis help us decipher these hidden patterns in our own backyards? This talk charts my journey exploring the world of open source projects for bird (and bat!) audio identification, some of the systems I've operated, and the data art pieces I've created from the results. From the science of birdsong, to machine learning models and data visualization, there's something for every hacker to be inspired by.

- How birds sing, spectrograms and analysis

- Neural networks for identifying animal sounds

- Feature pre-processing for sound ID

- Open source projects you can build yourself

- Data art and visualizations

- The psychology of shifting baselines and why the data matters

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/L79ASB/

PLOT4AI 2.0 is a pioneering open source AI threat modeling tool that provides a structured, lifecycle-based approach to AI risk identification. With over 100 AI-specific risk sources across eight categories, it aligns with the EU AI Act and supports trustworthy AI development and deployment. In this talk, the author will present the story of this internationally recognized tool, first published in 2022, and will introduce its new, expanded 2.0 version. More info @ https://plot4.ai/

After three years of research, in 2022 the first version of PLOT4AI launched with 86 AI-related threats. At that time AI security was still a niche topic discussed mainly by a few and AI safety was barely recognized beyond robotics and reinforcement learning.

Then, just seven months later, ChatGPT launched, and the AI landscape changed overnight.

Suddenly, AI became a central topic in public discourse, governance, and policy. The EU AI Act entered the scene, putting fundamental rights at the heart of AI product regulation. What was once a niche technical concern had become a global geopolitical issue, influencing regulatory and economic agendas around the world.

It became clear: PLOT4AI needed a major update.

In this talk, the author of PLOT4AI will take you behind the scenes of the tool’s creation and introduce PLOT4AI 2.0: a major new release of this open source AI threat modeling framework. The updated version includes over 138 AI-related threats, including threats related to Generative AI, Agentic AI, and complex deployment environments.

PLOT4AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a collaborative effort to make AI safer for everyone! As an open source initiative, it's built on feedback, shared experience, and contributions. Whether you’ve spotted a missing threat, devised a new mitigation, or have real-world examples to add, your input is welcome and encouraged!

This talk is both a deep dive into the evolution of AI threat modeling and a call to action for the AI open source communities to shape safer, more accountable AI together.

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/KB7ATS/

I briefly explain quantum cryptography. It is unbreakable in principle, but its real implementations have vulnerabilities arising from equipment imperfections. Certification standards [1] and accredited labs are being

established that can test commercial products for these flaws. I explain how we have analysed a commercial quantum key distribution system for loopholes, patched them, and designed tests for the certification lab [2].

[1] ISO/IEC 23837-2:2023(en) international standard.

[2] V. Makarov et al., Phys. Rev. Appl. 22, 044076 (2024), https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.20107

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/DFCBQD/

AI is everywhere and where it isn't today, it most likely will be tomorrow. But jumping on the hype train and adding AI often does not sufficiently consider security. This talk walks you through cases of AI failures, how they've come about, and how they could have been avoided. We're also going over some projections of spectacular AI failures we're likely to see going forward.

AI is everywhere and where it isn't today, it most likely will be tomorrow. But hype does not sufficiently consider security and AI has the ability to cause errors and failures the developers haven't considered. As was stated in the first Jurassic Park "they were so busy thinking if they could, they didn't stop to think if they should". So we're seeing more examples of failures than are needed for this talk that walks you through a few cases of AI failures, how they've come about, and how they could have been avoided. We're also going over some projections of what we're most likely going to see when you combine AI alignment issues, ability of AI agents to take action, and over confidence of developers in focusing if they could.

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/UXXZMU/

We developed an open-source low-field MRI and got the clinical certification started! The aim is to create a reference technology for healthcare – which comes with its own complex questions.

The Open Source Imaging Initiative has developed an open-source low-field MRI – and is now working on the clinical certification for it (+will open-source it as far as legally possible)!

This started raising some discussions around the costs and patenting-schemes in public healthcare. But what about the rest of the public infrastructure? And who keeps control of what?

This talk will give an overview of the current state of the project, a bit of historic context (how could this happen??) and will explore the current discussions around governance and property models – and the idea of Open-Source Standard Hardware

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/T9JW9Z/

This is an English spoken talk about the Dutch language, from a Dutch linguist's point of view. Some grammar and quirks of the language are illustrated using theory and examples, as well as a small "bluff your way into Dutch"

The inspiration for this talk comes from my background as a general linguist and current work as a teacher of Dutch as a foreign language. Eveybody with an interest in the Dutch language is welcome to join.

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/3MF3N3/

From (political) climate change to people marrying AI chatbots. The world can be a scary place.

This talk will be a comprehensive guide to anxiety. We’ll go through the basics of neuroscience and **causes of anxiety**, look at **the effects of the neurodivergent brain on anxiety** and you will be provided with **tools backed by science to implement directly into your daily life!**

You might feel tension in your chest when preparing a presentation, or a funny feeling in your stomach when you know you'll have to take public transport. Almost everyone feels anxious every once in a while, and about 15% of adults in the Netherlands have or have had an anxiety disorder. An explanation about what causes these feelings, and good applicable solutions on managing these feelings are sadly not always easy to find.

This talk will first provide you with a basic understanding of the (neuro)science behind anxiety. After we have a clear picture of **the causes of anxiety** we’ll look at neurodivergent brains, as many of us are blessed with one of those, and how that can influence anxiety. Last, but definitely not least, we’ll look at current research on anxiety interventions. And I'll provide you with **practical tips**, applicable **long term changes** that might help with daily well-being and **what to do when stressing about the existence of blockchains!**

(Ps. don’t worry, I won't tell you to just go for a run)

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/3NHUZB/

Modern UI/UX design is rooted in centuries-old geometry. This talk explores how historic tools—from Greek constructions to Bézier curves— is still broadly used to solve real problems today. Through demos and visual examples, we’ll uncover practical, eye-opening methods that blend math, art, and design. No technical background needed—just curiosity. Prepare to rethink how we build and understand the visual world.

Modern UI/UX design is built upon concepts much older than computers. This talk uncovers how ideas from the history of geometry continue to shape the ways we define and render interfaces today—while also revealing a deeper story: how practical mathematical problems, from antiquity to today, have been approached not with algebra, but with the elegance of geometric construction.

We’ll explore geometric throughlines, from Greek straightedge-and-compass methods, through innovations of the Islamic Golden Age, to Renaissance engineers and their mechanical drawing tools, all the way to Bézier curves of the 1960s—now foundational to every smooth SVG path on the web. Alongside interactive demos and visual examples, we’ll dive into surprisingly current problems that are solved through construction alone, in ways that are both rigorous and astonishingly intuitive.

This talk is for anyone with a curious mind—no technical background required. While code snippets will appear, the real goal is to spark insight and wonder. Join us to discover how a blend of math, history, and art can transform the way we see both digital and physical space—and how centuries-old ideas continue to solve problems in ways that are as beautiful as they are practical.

Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

about this event: https://program.why2025.org/why2025/talk/VRMZEG/