World-renowned cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier is to outline his vision of the future in a special event at Edinburgh Napier University.

The influential author of Click Here to Kill Everybody will discuss Trust, Privacy and The Future in a speaking engagement at the Craiglockhart campus on Wednesday June 19.

A fellow of the Harvard Law School, New York-born Schneier has written a series of critically acclaimed books, essays, blogs and academic papers on cybersecurity, privacy and cryptography. He describes himself as a “public interest technologist, working at the intersection of security, technology and people”.

His talk will be hosted by Edinburgh Napier’s Cyber Academy and Blockpass ID lab.

Professor Bill Buchanan, who leads cybersecurity research within the university’s School of Computing, said: “The main reason I teach and research cybersecurity is because of Bruce. I read his book on privacy, and he showed me that a new world was evolving, and that world was based on cryptography, which is now my main subject focus.

“Bruce also outlined that trust was one of the first things that allowed us to build our societies, but that this is now failing in an information age, where we can trust very little within digital spaces.

“His conclusions are that we must build new worlds of digital trust. This motivates virtually every part of our work within our Blockpass Identity Lab.”

Cyber Academy manager Basil Manoussos added: “Our trust in our digital world needs to be improved, and we are happy to invite Bruce to Edinburgh in order to support future debate around areas such as trust, identity and the future of the Internet.”

The visit was set up in collaboration with leading IT Security company Satisnet, which earlier joined forces with the university to create a state-of-the-art cybersecurity training environment known as SOCLAB. John McCann, Director of Satisnet, said: “Bruce has inspired a generation of cybersecurity professionals.”

Register here to attend the free event at Craiglockhart from 9am until 11am on June 19.

Later on the same day, the university will play host to bitcoin and blockchain expert Andreas Antonopoulos, who will give his “Thoughts on the Future of Programmable Money” in a session at Craiglockhart.

The critically-acclaimed author and speaker explains the technology in human terms in talks which combine economics, psychology and theory with current events, personal anecdotes and historical precedents.

Born in London and raised in Athens, he is a frequent speaker at technology and security conferences worldwide, and has advised dozens of Fortune 500 company executives on networking, security, data centres and cloud computing.

To book a slot at the June 19 event, which runs from 6pm to 9pm, click here.