Fueling The Future: Building Robust Engines - Daniel Cuthbert (Keynote)
Nullcon Goa 2025 · Keynote
In his compelling Nullcon keynote, "Fueling The Future: Building Robust Engines," Daniel Cuthbert challenges the cybersecurity industry to fundamentally rethink its approach, advocating for a shift from a reactive, bug-centric mindset to a proactive **safety engineering** paradigm. Cuthbert, a veteran security researcher and co-founder of the OWASP Testing Project, argues that the tech sector has largely ignored critical lessons from centuries of industrial development regarding safety and robustness, leading to a pervasive culture of "safety third." He contends that this oversight is increasingly perilous given humanity's growing reliance on interconnected digital systems and the dawn of the AI era.
AI review
Cuthbert is a credible voice making a legitimate point — the industry glorifies offense, ignores systemic safety engineering, and keeps shipping the same bug classes decade after decade. The argument is correct. The talk is also, fundamentally, a well-delivered sermon to the choir that doesn't advance the conversation much beyond what Halvar Flake said in 2016 and what anyone paying attention already knows.