On Tuesday, Nov. 29, the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity hosted a lunch seminar with John Crain, Chief Security, Stability, and Resiliency Officer for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) top-level domain name system management, and root server system management functions.
Mr. Crain works on a cross-functional basis with the ICANN executive team, staff, and the community to enable and enhance capabilities that improve the overall security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet’s Identifier Systems and associated infrastructures, and he represents ICANN in operational and technical dialogues and forums to ensure the full community’s engagement with these programs. Prior to his time at ICANN, John worked as part of the executive management team at the RIPE NCC in Amsterdam.
In his presentation, Crain provided an overview of ICANN’s role in managing the web’s infrastructure, and he detailed some of the security challenges that his organization must contend with as the number of internet-connected devices around the world continues to grow. “You cannot use the Internet without using some form of identifier,” he explained. “It may be the plumbing, but you can’t move water without pipes…. Anything that can be used for good, can be used for bad.”
Watch the full video of the seminar below.
