Security guru to Tromsø

Even though security might not be the most enticing topic one can imagine at an eHealth conference, it is highly relevant.

- “The security of patient information is a red-hot issue now that we have introduced electronic patient records in the public health service. The great fear of authorities, health staff and patients is that sensitive patient information will fall into the hands of hackers or other outsiders,” comments the chair of the programme committee, Siri Bjørvig.

- “We are delighted that he has accepted the invitation to share his knowledge with all the conference participants in June,” she says.

One of the world's leading figures in data security, Ross Anderson, will be the keynote speaker at the Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference, 9-11 June 2008.

Security engineering

Ross Anderson is Professor of Security Engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. He was one of the pioneers of security economics, of peer-to-peer systems, of API attacks on cryptographic processors, and of the study of hardware tamper resistance. He has also written a well-known book on Security Engineering, about building systems so that they remain dependable in the face of malice, error or mischance.

Adviser to British Medical Associations

Ross Anderson also has a long-standing interest in the safety and privacy of clinical information systems, having been an adviser to both the British and Icelandic Medical Associations during the 1990s. Most recently he worked on the privacy of children's databases in a project for the UK Information Commissioner, and was a Special Adviser to the UK Parliament's Health Select Committee when it held an inquiry into the electronic patient record.