Former keynotes keep coming back to DEFCON. Join The Dark Tangent, Rod Beckstrom, Jerry Dixon, Tony Sager, and Linton Wells to discuss the future of cyber security.
Rod Beckstrom is a highly successful entrepreneur, founder and CEO of a publicly-traded company, a best-selling author, avowed environmentalist, public diplomacy leader and, most recently, the head of a top-level federal government agency entrusted with protecting the nation's communication networks against cyber attack. Throughout 2008, Rod served as the Director of the National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he reported to the Secretary of DHS, and was charged with cooperating directly with the Attorney General, National Security Council, Secretary of Defense, and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Prior to joining DHS, he served on the DNI's Senior Advisory Group. Rod is unique in having experienced the inner workings of two, highly-charged, often competing, federal security agencies created in the wake of the September 11th attacks, an event that he says, "changed my life." Rod is widely regarded as a pre-eminent thinker and speaker on issues of cybersecurity and related global issues, as well as on organizational strategy and leadership. He is also an expert on how carbon markets and "green" issues affect business. While Director of the NCSC, Rod developed an effective working group of leaders from the nation's top six cybersecurity centers across the civilian, military and intelligence communities. His work led to his development of a new economic theory that provides an explicit model for valuing any network, answering a decades-old problem in economics. Rod co-authored four books including The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, a best-selling model for analyzing organizations, leadership styles, and competitive strategy. The Starfish and the Spider has been translated into 16 foreign editions and is broadly quoted. At age 24, Rod started his first company in a garage apartment and, subsequently, grew it into a global enterprise with offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Geneva, Sydney, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. CATS Software Inc., went public and later sold. Nobel Laureates Myron Scholes and William F. Sharpe served on the company's boards of directors and advisors. While at CATS Rod helped advance the financial theory of "value at risk," now used globally for all key banking risk management. Rod co-edited the first book to introduce "value at risk." Rod also co-founded Mergent Systems, a pioneer in inferential database engines, which Commerce One later acquired for $200 million. He has co-launched other collaborations, software, and internet service businesses, as well. From 1999 to 2001, he served as Chairman of Privada, Inc, a leader in technology enabling private, anonymous, and secure credit card transactions over the internet. In 2003, Rod co-founded a global peace network of CEO's which initiated Track II diplomatic efforts between India and Pakistan. The group's symbolic actions opened the borders to people and trade, and contributed to ending the most recent Indo-Pak conflict. It's one of several non-profit groups and initiatives Rod has started. He now serves on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund, which Fortune Magazine ranked as one of the seven most powerful boards in the world and Jamii Bora Trust an innovative micro-lending group in Africa with more than 200,000 members. He is a graduate of Stanford University with an MBA and a BA with Honors and Distinction. He served as Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the combined Stanford student body (ASSU) and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Rod commenced as President and CEO of ICANN on 1 July 2009.
Jerry Dixon Jerry Dixon currently serves as Director of Analysis for Team Cymru and was the former Director of the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) & US-CERT, of the Department of Homeland Security. He continues to advise partners on national cyber-security threats, aides organizations in preparing for cyber-attacks, and assists with the development of cyber-security policies for organizations.
Tony Sager is the Chief of the Vulnerability Analysis and Operations (VAO) Group within the Information Assurance Directorate at the National Security Agency. VAO's mission is to identify and analyze the vulnerability of information, technology, and operations for NSA customers, primarily within the Defense Department and the Intelligence Community. VAO is also very active in helping the broader national security community deal with these same problems through guidance and standards. VAO has received recognition from several private sector sources (including SC Magazine Editor's Choice for 2007; and The National Information Security Leadership Award from Government Executive Magazine and the SANS Institute). During his 30 year career at the NSA, Tony has held a number of technical and managerial positions in Computer/Network Security and software analysis. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Western Maryland College and an MS in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University. Tony is also a graduate of the US Army Signal Officer Basic Course (as a civilian), and the National Security Leadership Course. He is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at national and international security events.
Linton Wells II is the Director of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at National Defense University (NDU). He also is a Distinguished Research Professor and serves as the University's Transformation Chair. Prior to coming to NDU he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) from 1991 to 2007, serving last as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration). In addition, he served as the Acting Assistant Secretary and DoD Chief Information Officer for nearly two years. His other OSD positions included Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence-C3I) and Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Policy Support) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy). In twenty-six years of naval service, Dr. Wells served in a variety of surface ships, including command of a destroyer squadron and guided missile destroyer. In addition, he acquired a wide range of experience in operations analysis; Pacific, Indian Ocean and Middle East affairs; and C3I. Recently he has been focusing on STAR-TIDES, a research project focusing on sustainable support to populations under stress and public-private interoperability (www.star-tides.net). Dr. Wells was born in Luanda, Angola, in 1946. He was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1967 and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and oceanography. He attended graduate school at The Johns Hopkins University, receiving a Master of Science in Engineering degree in mathematical sciences and a PhD in international relations. He is also a 1983 graduate of the Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo, the first U.S. naval officer to attend there. Dr. Wells has written widely on security studies in English and Japanese journals. He co-authored Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War, which was published in 1997. His hobbies include history, the relationship between policy and technology, and scuba diving. He has thrice been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.