San Francisco, CA – ICANN Names Computer Hacker As Security Chief

San Francisco, CA – Jeff Moss, a prominent computer hacker who founded the annual Black Hat and DefCon security conferences in Las Vegas, has been hired as the chief security officer for the organization that coordinates names of the world’s Web sites.

The organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, plays a vital role in making sure that when you type a site name into a Web browser, your computer knows where to go to find the site you’re trying to reach. ICANN manages the domain name system that underlies that chain of communication.

“I can think of no one with a greater understanding of the security threats facing Internet users and how best to defend against them than Jeff Moss,” Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO and formerly the director of the U.S. National Cybersecurity Center, said in a statement. “He has the in-depth insider’s knowledge that can only come from fighting in the trenches of the ongoing war against cyber threats.”

Moss, who also serves on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s advisory council, takes on the new post Friday at ICANN’s offices in Washington, D.C.