Trustworthy Software Foundation
A UK not-for-profit organisation focused on improving software trustworthiness through shared good practice, professional engagement and education.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
The Trustworthy Software Foundation is a United Kingdom not-for-profit organisation concerned with improving the trustworthiness of software. Its work is organised around five related properties: safety, reliability, availability, resilience and security. Together, these properties describe software that avoids harmful states, performs its intended functions, remains usable when needed, can recover or adapt after disruptive events, and stays protected against accidental or deliberate attack. The organisation presents trustworthiness as an extension of the more established concept of dependability. In particular, it adds resilience as a distinct facet, reflecting the UK Government approach to systems that must transform, renew and recover in response to changing conditions. This framing places the foundation at the intersection of software engineering, operational dependability, information assurance, cybersecurity and public policy. Its primary objective is to provide a continuing backbone for signposting and sharing good practice. The foundation addresses a landscape in which useful guidance and expertise may be distributed across professional institutions, government bodies, research communities and specialist initiatives, and may therefore be difficult for practitioners to find. Rather than being described primarily as a commercial software vendor, it functions as a coordinating and knowledge-oriented organisation intended to make trustworthy-software resources more visible and usable. A secondary objective is to advance elements of the 2009 Trustworthy Software Roadmap. The foundation has placed particular emphasis on education and professional engagement, including work with the Institute for Analytics and similar professional or educational networks, the British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. These relationships are intended to promote software trustworthiness as a professional and educational concern rather than limiting it to specialist security teams. The foundation operates as a company limited by guarantee and is jointly owned by its subscriber organisations, described as UK professional bodies. Its formal interface with a wider group of stakeholders is provided through the independent Advisory Committee on Trustworthy Systems, known as ACTS. The foundation and ACTS developed from a series of UK government, industry and professional activities addressing weaknesses in secure software development and the broader assurance of software-intensive systems. The organisation’s background includes UK government studies from the mid-2000s, work conducted through the Technology Strategy Board’s cybersecurity knowledge-transfer activities, a 2009 international workshop on information security, privacy and assurance, and a government-supported study period on secure software development that ran from 2009 to 2010. The Trustworthy Software Initiative, originally called the Software Security, Dependability and Resilience Initiative, was subsequently sponsored by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure from 2011 to 2016. The available reference material does not establish a current operating status, leadership roster, commercial revenue, or an official public website.
History
The Trustworthy Software Foundation emerged from a sequence of UK initiatives examining weaknesses in software security, dependability and assurance. In 2004–2005, a study by the Cabinet Office’s Central Sponsor for Information Assurance identified the widespread absence of secure software-development practices as a significant concern. A 2006 Global Watch report from the Department of Trade and Industry likewise recorded a relative shortage of secure software-development capability in the United Kingdom. The subject then developed through Technology Strategy Board activity. A Special Interest Group on Secure Software Development operated within the Cyber Security Knowledge Transfer Network during 2007–2008. In March 2009, the Technology Strategy Board and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Science and Innovation Network supported a multinational workshop in Paris examining the challenges of incorporating information security, privacy and assurance into software and systems. These strands contributed to the Secure Software Development Partnership study period, jointly funded by the Technology Strategy Board and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure. The study ran from 2009 to 2010 and provided a basis for considering how software development practices could better address security and broader dependability requirements. The Trustworthy Software Initiative, initially known as the Software Security, Dependability and Resilience Initiative, was a UK public-good activity sponsored by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure from 2011 to 2016. Alongside the Advisory Committee on Trustworthy Systems, it evolved into the Trustworthy Software Foundation structure described in the reference material. The resulting organisation adopted a wider concept of trustworthiness, combining safety, reliability, availability, resilience and security. The foundation’s stated role is principally connective and educational. It seeks to maintain an accessible route to good-practice material that may otherwise remain dispersed among government, professional, academic and specialist sources. It also seeks to promote trustworthy software through education and engagement with organisations including the Institute for Analytics, the British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. It is constituted as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, jointly owned by subscriber UK professional bodies, while ACTS provides an independent formal interface to a broader stakeholder community. The supplied sources do not provide enough information to establish later institutional developments, current officers or whether the organisation remains active.
- 2016
End of stated CPNI sponsorship period
[1]The supplied historical account identifies 2016 as the end of the stated Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure sponsorship period.
- 2011
Trustworthy Software Initiative sponsorship period begins
[1]The Trustworthy Software Initiative, originally called the Software Security, Dependability and Resilience Initiative, entered a public-good activity sponsored by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.
- 2009
Paris multinational workshop
[1]A Technology Strategy Board and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Science and Innovation Network workshop examined the challenges of building information security, privacy and assurance into software and systems.
- 2009
Secure Software Development Partnership study period begins
[1]A government-supported Secure Software Development Partnership study period began and continued through 2010.
- 2007
Secure Software Development Special Interest Group
[1]A Secure Software Development Special Interest Group operated within the Technology Strategy Board’s Cyber Security Knowledge Transfer Network during 2007–2008.
- 2006
Global Watch report highlights UK capability gap
[1]A Department of Trade and Industry Global Watch report noted the United Kingdom’s relative lack of secure software-development practices.
- 2004
Cabinet Office information-assurance study
[1]A Cabinet Office Central Sponsor for Information Assurance study identified the lack of secure software-development practices as a pervasive concern.
Products and positioning
A UK public-good and professional-coordination organisation for software trustworthiness, positioned between software engineering practice, cybersecurity, dependability, resilience and education.
Professional framework
Trustworthiness framework
The foundation’s central conceptual offering defines trustworthy software through five facets: safety, reliability, availability, resilience and security. Safety concerns avoidance of harmful states; reliability concerns delivery of specified services; availability concerns delivery when requested; resilience concerns timely transformation, renewal and recovery after events; and security concerns protection from accidental or deliberate attacks. The framework extends conventional dependability terminology by treating resilience as an additional explicit dimension.
Knowledge resource
Good-practice knowledge backbone
The foundation’s primary practical role is to provide a continuing route to relevant good-practice sources. It is intended to connect users with material distributed across professional bodies, government programmes, educational institutions and specialist communities, helping practitioners and educators find guidance on trustworthy software without requiring the foundation to act as a conventional commercial product supplier.
Sources1 sources
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