WHY2025

How we made the Netherlands more secure and accessible using transparency
2025-08-10 , Andromeda
Language: English

It started with a simple idea in 2016: make the state of security of our government transparent/public. The simple idea has become national government policy. Using transparency we've helped fix tons of security issues, reduce costs and increased control on IT. This year we've rolled out in Belgium and started measuring accessibility of websites in the same fashion. Learn how we've achieved extreme impact with a minimal budget and keep on doing so. Security and accessibility must be commodities.


(We're planning a couple of nice surprises during this talk exclusive for WHY2025. As always: it will make some people nervous, yet it will make society better.)

A transparent and accountable society creates trust. We're currently monitoring all important organizations in the Netherlands on about 25 security, privacy and sovereignty metrics. You can see openly where organizations are doing great or where they are even (unknowingly) breaking the law.

With the EU requiring accessibility on multiple sectors this year, we've also starting measuring accessibility in the same fashion. You can clearly distinguish organizations with and without an accessibility policy.

We'll show what it looks like, the impact it has, the awesome cyber tokens and certificates we make and the sets of open data we create.

The project is at its peak right now. If you want to make an impact on society: this is where it's at.

Chair of the Internet Cleanup Foundation and initiator of the basisbeveiliging.nl and basistoegankelijk.nl projects. With over a decade of security expertise and many more years in software developement, Elger tries to change the world for the better. Elger is very active in the ethical hacker scene. Founding Hack42 and Awesome Space and chair for the last two Dutch hacker camps/conferences: SHA2017 and MCH2022. #okboomer

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