Fred Piper Information Security Lecture

Kieron O'Hara
Emeritus Fellow, University of Southampton

In his Leviathan (1651), philosopher Thomas Hobbes offered a simple deal: obey the ruler, and the ruler keeps you safe from your fellow citizens and external enemies. This "social contract" inaugurated and shaped modernity and liberal democracy.

But things have moved on. In today’s digital modernity, threats come from within and without —and everyone has a different perspective on them. Security must encompass not only the social world, but also the digital realm (and the interface between them). The technologies promising prosperity (e.g. big data, social media, blockchain, AI, quantum computing) also threaten individual privacy, civil society cohesion, and security. Meanwhile, power is distributed beyond government hands, creating a parallel Digital Leviathan controlled by unaccountable tech giants.

Security therefore must evolve accordingly, and encompass both the social and the digital. It must be expansive without fragmenting into silos, and be critical while supporting the innovation that will enable society to keep itself secure.

This talk will explore these dilemmas, to consider:

*       Why Hobbes' simple formula no longer works
*       How digital power has reshaped security
*       Whether we can trust these new systems
*       And: Are we drifting back toward chaos—or building something new?

Professor Fred Piper founded our Information Security Group, and his work has shaped our thinking about how protect and manage information. Fred played an instrumental role in making information security both publicly accessible and a fully-fledged academic subject. 

Admission is free, but booking is essential.