Third EU-FOSSA 2 Cyber Security Hackathon

In the first weekend of October, close to a 100 developers from 18 countries and 4 continents gathered in Brussels for the third and final EU-FOSSA 2 Cyber Security hackathon. In 2 days they co-created eight different open source projects. Developers from the European Commission and external open source developers had the opportunity to exchange their experience while fixing security vulnerabilities and enhancing their software in an inspiring and fun atmosphere.

The hackathon took place during European Cyber Security Month, the EU's annual awareness campaign that takes place each October. The campaign aims to raise awareness, promote cybersecurity amongst citizens and organisations, and provides tips and resources for online safety.

Lora Borissova, Head of Cabinet of EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, opened the hackathon. In her welcome speech, Borissova said:

I am pleased to say that we are just putting the finishing touches to the latest update of our open source strategy, which will be released later this year.

After two days of coding, hacking, knowledge sharing, and celebrating, each team summarised what they accomplished over the weekend:

A lot of new features have been implemented, a large number of issues fixed, and many online friendships cemented in real life.

This hackathon is part of the EU-FOSSA 2 project, which aims to improve the security and integrity of critical open source software in use at the European institutions. Following the success of an initial pilot, the project was renewed for another three years, extending the auditing of free and open source software through setting up bug bounty programmes, organising hackathons and conferences, and engaging with developer communities. You can read more about EU-FOSSA 2 here.