OpenSSL names keynote speakers & sponsors for Prague

OpenSSL Corporation has confirmed keynote speakers and main sponsors for OpenSSL Conference 2026, the event's second edition in Prague.

The speaker line-up includes Matt Caswell, President of the OpenSSL Foundation; Eric Young, co-author of SSLeay; Tim Hudson, President of the OpenSSL Corporation and fellow co-author of SSLeay; and Tanja Lange, Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Also due to speak are Daniel J. Bernstein, Research Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago; Peter Gutmann, founder and maintainer of cryptlib; and David Hook, Vice President of Software Engineering at Bouncy Castle, one of the event's sponsors.

The conference is aimed at engineers, researchers, business leaders and policymakers working on cryptographic systems and internet security. The programme is intended to bring together software maintainers, academic researchers and decision-makers dealing with technical and regulatory questions.

OpenSSL is one of the most widely used cryptographic libraries in internet infrastructure and commercial software, with code used across operating systems, cloud environments, enterprise applications and connected devices.

That broad deployment gives the conference relevance beyond the open-source software community. Topics under discussion include how cryptographic tools are maintained, how vulnerabilities are identified, and how organisations respond to changing regulation and technical pressure.

Tim Hudson set out the case for direct exchanges between practitioners and users of cryptographic software.

"Cryptography underpins much of what people and businesses rely on, and the decisions about how it is built, maintained and used are getting harder. The OpenSSL Conference gives people direct access to those doing that work," said Tim Hudson, President of the OpenSSL Corporation.

"Attendees can challenge assumptions rather than just listen to them, and work out what the changes ahead mean for their own systems. That kind of open discussion is essential if the infrastructure we all depend on is to remain secure and sustainable."

Industry backing

Cisco is the conference's platinum sponsor. Other sponsors include Amazon Web Services, Bouncy Castle, KeyPair, NetApp, Red Hat, SafeLogic and Securosys.

The sponsor list reflects commercial interest in the governance and maintenance of open cryptographic software. Many of the companies either build security products, supply infrastructure used by large organisations, or work directly with cryptography in operational settings.

Sponsor support has helped bring contributors, researchers and users together in one place, while giving attendees more opportunities to speak directly with organisations involved in cryptography from both technical and commercial perspectives.

Shared agenda

Magdalena Zdunkiewicz, who leads the OpenSSL Conference programme, said the event is designed to reduce the distance between groups that often shape cryptographic systems separately.

"Maintainers write the code, researchers publish what breaks it, and regulators write rules about both, usually without ever meeting," said Magdalena Zdunkiewicz, who leads the OpenSSL Conference programme.

"The programme puts all three in the same tracks for three days, with the evenings to keep talking. The conversations at this conference will shape what comes next in cryptography."

The event will be held at the Vienna House by Wyndham Diplomat Prague in the Dejvice district. Talks, tutorials, meals and informal discussions are all set to take place in the same building, a layout intended to keep participants together between sessions.

The programme is structured around four halls running four parallel tracks. The format is intended to give delegates direct access to maintainers, researchers and other practitioners rather than separating formal sessions from informal discussions.

For OpenSSL, the gathering also serves as a focal point for a community that sits at the centre of internet security but often works behind the scenes. The project's software helps secure online transactions, communications and identity systems used by businesses, public services and consumers.

As scrutiny of software supply chains and security standards grows, the maintenance of widely used open-source cryptographic libraries has become a more visible issue for regulators and corporate technology leaders. The conference agenda reflects that shift by putting infrastructure maintainers alongside researchers and policy stakeholders.