SoftIron Challenges the Notion of ‘Trust’ In Technology Supply Chain Model, Offering Solutions
Canberra, Australia – (March 3, 2021) – SoftIron Ltd., the leader in purpose-built and performance-optimized data center solutions, today announced that its leading APAC Solutions Architect, Joff Pearce, will be presenting in-person at the Australian Cyber Conference, 2021 in Canberra, Australia, on March 16-18, 2021 on the subjects of sovereign resilience and supply chain security.
Pearce’s talk, titled, ‘Sovereign Resilience: Is It Time We Finally Looked At What’s Actually In The ‘Box’?” will examine the state of the global technology supply chain and its inextricable links to foreign (primarily Chinese) design and manufacture. Speaking for SoftIron, Pearce will challenge today’s reliance on “trust” for device security, and will discuss the associated risks involved in this entrenched arrangement to critical national infrastructure. Referencing recent supply chain cybersecurity breaches examples, such as those recently highlighted in the Bloomberg article, “The Long Hack: How China Exploited a U.S. Tech Supplier,” Pearce will offer a framework and strategy (one which SoftIron has developed and already begun implementing) that all IT hardware manufacturers could undertake to expose and mitigate supply chain security risk dramatically, as well as bolster sovereign resilience in APAC.
“Many countries are currently evaluating their reliance on opaque, predominantly foreign-made, IT hardware for their national critical infrastructure,” said Joff Pearce, Solutions Architect with SoftIron in the APAC region. “ Sovereign Resilience will only be possible when we address the lack of transparency in the current supply chain, and allow a light to be shone into every corner of a product’s design and manufacture. Some of this will be about the growth of Australia’s capability in various disciplines, but it will also be as much about a fresh approach to how and where we choose to build and audit product and process along the way, replacing trust with auditable verification.”
Pearce, formerly a solutions architect with Commonwealth Bank’s Cyber Security Centre program in Sydney, Australia, will explore the possible options available in product design and manufacture that could limit exposure, and suggest steps that can be taken to expose, measure, and mitigate cyber risk in hardware. Joff’s talk is on Day 3 of the event, Thursday 18th March at 2pm.
About The Australian Cyber Conference
The Australian Cyber Conference 2021 – Canberra will provide business leaders with insights and best practices taught by the industry’s top experts through keynotes, panel sessions and live demonstrations – both in person and virtually. For more information visit https://cyberconference.com.au/canberra/.
