Marina del Rey, California, USA (11 February 2002) - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the appointment of Dr. Stephen Crocker as chair of its newly formed Standing Committee on Security and Stability. The committee, also to be known as the ICANN Security Committee, will focus on the security of the Internet's naming and address allocation systems. The ICANN Board had directed ICANN President Stuart Lynn to appoint this committee at ICANN's special security meeting held last November.
"I am delighted that someone of Dr. Crocker's stature and experience has accepted this challenging task," Lynn noted. "The committee will have a key role in working with ICANN constituencies to assess where the principal DNS security risks lie; and in advising the Board on priorities for further actions within the scope of ICANN's responsibilities."
Dr. Crocker is an Internet pioneer who helped develop protocols for the original Arpanet and who organized the forerunner of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). He has been a program manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), and has worked at the USC Information Sciences Institute and the Aerospace Corporation (where he founded the Computer Sciences Laboratory). He was a co-founder and CTO of CyberCash Inc., and was co-founder and president of Longitude Systems.
Dr. Crocker was recently awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award for his early work on the Internet. He holds a B.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA.
The first order of business for the Committee will be to advise the president on its proposed charter. This charter will be submitted to the ICANN Board for approval.
The Committee membership is in the process of being completed. The membership is being widely drawn from across ICANN's diverse constituency organizations and includes outside experts.