IGF-USA 2020 Session

Network Security and Cyber Attacks Users Don’t See (or Understand)

Thursday, July 23

1:15-2:30 PM EDT

Most Internet users know what can go wrong when Internet apps and websites are not secure (e.g. stolen passwords, identity theft, etc.). But cyber attacks “lower in the stack” can have grave consequences, too: Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS), man-in-the-middle attacks, rerouting traffic halfway around the world, phishing attacks using bogus domain names, etc. The good news is that ISPs, Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), domain name providers, and other infrastructure companies are making the network more robust and safer.

Moderator

Robert H. Mayer

Senior Vice President - Cybersecurity, USTelecom Association

View Bio

Robert Mayer is Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity and Innovation with the USTelecom Association (USTelecom) with responsibility for leading cyber and national security policy and strategic initiatives. He is the current Chairman of the Communications Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC), which represents the broadcast, cable, satellite, wireless and wireline industries in connection with DHS and public-private partnership activities across the U.S. government. Mayer serves as the co-chair of the Department of Homeland Security’s ICT Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force, which recently delivered an Interim Report including findings and recommendations related to information sharing, threat criteria, qualified bidders and manufacturer lists and proposals to address procurement of counterfeit products. He also serves as co-Chair of the Counsel to Secure the Digital Economy (CSDE), which consists of 13 global ICT infrastructure providers that have produced internationally recognized work on IoT baseline capabilities, an International Anti-Botnet Guide and ICT coordination in the event of a global cyber crisis. Mayer was appointed to the FCC Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC V), after having led a 100-person team of cybersecurity professionals that produced a landmark report to adapt the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to the broadcast, cable, satellite, wireless and wireline industries.

Prior to USTelecom, Mayer served as the top telecommunications official for New York State as Telecom Director of the New York Public Service Commission. In that capacity, he led several major initiatives including regulatory reform efforts and he created a new agency department that focused exclusively on network reliability and public safety matters. Prior to this appointment, Mayer was the lead regulatory practitioner in the Telecommunications and Cable Group at KPMG Consulting and was a consultant with Deloitte Consulting. Before that, Mayer worked as an analyst in the international telecommunications divisions of Chase Manhattan Bank and JP Morgan. Mayer served in the US Air Force supervising intelligence and communications operations at NATO Headquarters, Southern Europe in Italy. He received his B.A from Albany State University, his MA in Information Management from Central Michigan University, his MBA from Boston University, and his J.D from New York Law School.

Speakers

Michael Benjamin

Sr. Director Threat Research, CenturyLink

View Bio Michael Benjamin is a 22-year veteran of the security and service provider markets. Since the team’s inception in 2014, Michael has led CenturyLink’s Black Lotus Labs, working to track and understand threats facing the internet. His team’s responsibility is to create the technology underpinning all security products at CenturyLink and to track internet threats to help protect CenturyLink and its customers. Michael comes from a strong technology and leadership background, having led all security technology direction at Level 3 Communications, as well as long-term planning for all technologies in his prior role at Global Crossing. His focus has been across network, computing and security technologies throughout his career.

Dr. James Galvin

Director Strategic Partnerships and Technical Standards, Afilias USA

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Dr. James Galvin is Afilias's Director of Strategic Partnerships and Technical Standards. With over 30 years of experience in Internet network security operations, and standards and policy development, James advises on critical infrastructure evolution and product development. He is an expert on the evolution of the Internet threat landscape, and the challenges facing governments and organizations seeking Internet security and stability. Dr. Galvin is a technical leader in Internet standards and policy setting continuing as an active participant in the IETF since 1989 and ICANN since 2002, among others. Dr. Galvin earned his Doctorate from the University of Delaware with his dissertation entitled "Distributed Cryptographic Key Management System".

Ashley Heineman

Director, Global Policy, GoDaddy

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Ashley Heineman is Director, Global Policy at GoDaddy, and was elected as Chair of the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group in June 2020. Prior to GoDaddy, Heineman worked at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Heineman has been a leader in technical and public policy associated with the Domain Name System for over fifteen years.

Martin Levy

Distinguished Engineer, Cloudflare

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Mr. Martin J. Levy holds a Distinguished Engineer position at Cloudflare, a global company based in San Francisco, California. Mr. Levy has been involved in the operational world of TCP/IP for more nearly 40 years and has spent nearly half of that time focused on the well being of Internet backbones, peering and efficient distribution of content.

Mr. Levy worked at the prestigious Bell Telephone Laboratories in the early 80’s with a career revolved around the early days of deploying TCP/IP, DNS and routing protocols on Unix boxes. He has since worked on both early TCP/IP application development along with building global IP networks from the mid 90’s to mid 2000’s. Mr. Levy is mainly known for his dedication and unrelenting pursuit of the deployment of IPv6 within the global Internet. This is well documented online. In March 2014 he joined Cloudflare.

Mr. Levy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computing and Cybernetics from the University of Kent, Canterbury (UK 1978). He was born in London, England and has traveled extensively throughout his life. He now resides in California and has done so for well over half his life. He’s a UK/US dual citizen.

James Andrew Lewis

Senior Vice President and Director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

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James Andrew Lewis is a senior vice president and director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He has authored numerous publications on the relationship between technology, innovation, and national power. His current research examines international security and governance in cyberspace, the geopolitics of innovation, the future of warfare, and the effect of the internet on politics. Lewis is an internationally recognized expert on cybersecurity and technology and was one of the first to approach cybersecurity as a policy and strategic problem. His writings include the best-selling Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, the national cybersecurity strategy cited by President Obama in the first speech by a U.S. president on cybersecurity and that became a template for cyber strategy in other countries. Lewis was the rapporteur for the United Nations' successful 2010, 2013, and 2015 Group of Government Experts on Information Security, whose reports set out the global agenda for cybersecurity by emphasizing norms for responsible state behavior, confidence building, and capacity-building measures.

Before joining CSIS, Lewis worked at the Departments of State and Commerce as a foreign service officer and as a member of the Senior Executive Service. His government experience included a range of politico-military and negotiating assignments, including the development of groundbreaking policies on commercial remote sensing, encryption, and advanced conventional weapons. He was assigned as a political advisor to the U.S. Southern Command for Operation Just Cause, the U.S. Central Command for Operation Desert Shield, and the Central American Task Force. Lewis served on the U.S. delegations to the Cambodian peace process and the Permanent Five talks on arms transfers and nonproliferation, and he negotiated bilateral agreements on transfers of military technology to Asia and the Middle East. He led the U.S. delegation to the Wassenaar Arrangement Experts Group on advanced civilian and military technologies. Lewis led a long-running Track 2 dialogue on cybersecurity with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. He has served as a member of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, and the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing and as an advisor to government agencies on the security and intelligence implications of foreign investment in the United States. Lewis is frequently quoted in the media and has testified numerous times before Congress. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

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