(07/2024)
Merike Kaeo is the Founder and Virtual CISO of Double Shot Security, which provides corporate governance and executive strategies to secure global organizations. She has over 25 years of experience in pioneering Internet technology deployments and developing strategic security initiatives.
Merike instigated and led the first security initiative for Cisco Systems in the mid 1990s and authored the first Cisco book on security, Designing Network Security, which was translated into multiple languages and widely used in prominent security accreditation programs such as Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). She has held a variety of CTO and CISO executive leadership positions and has a deep-rooted history in the global Internet community having contributed to organizations such as NANOG, APNIC, RIPE, ARIN, LACNIC, IGF, IETF, FIRST, and ISOC. She is a frequently sought-after panelist and keynote speaker for disseminating and promoting strategies to create stable, resilient, and safe digital environments.
In 2007, Merike was instrumental in fostering cooperation and trust among the global operational security community and the Estonian National CERT during the cyber-attacks against Estonia. She is fluent in Estonian, German and English.
Merike was appointed to the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) Board of Trustees in 2016 to serve a one-year term from Jan 1, 2017 to Dec 31, 2017. Since 2010 she has been an active member on ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Council (SSAC) and from 2018 through 2021 served as the SSAC Liaison to the ICANN Board.
She holds a MSEE from George Washington University and a BSEE from Rutgers University.
Disclosure of Interest:
- Please identify your current employer(s) and position(s). Double Shot Security, Founder/vCISO
- Please identify the type(s) of work performed at #1 above. Perform strategic security assessments and/or create holistic security programs for global organizations. Work with nation states to promote cybersecurity and safety initiatives, execute on cybersecurity capacity building and enhance National CSIRT/CERT initiatives.
- Please identify any board or committee positions that you hold that might be perceived as influencing your expressed point of view, irrespective of whether they are voluntary. None
- Please list any financial or other material relationship beyond de minimus stock ownership that you, your employer, or an immediate family member/significant other has with ICANN or with any individual, company, or other entity that to your knowledge has a current or planned financial or other material relationship with ICANN. None
- Please list any business transactions that you, your employer, or an immediate family member/significant other has had with ICANN within the last 5 years. None
- Is your participation as an SSAC member the subject of any arrangements or agreements between you and any other group, constituency, or person(s)? No
- If the answer is “yes,” please describe the arrangements or agreements and the name of the group, constituency, or person(s). N/A