ICANN made is official today named former U.S. National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) director Rod Beckstrom as its new CEO, replace the retiring Paul Twomey.
In March Beckstrom resigned as US cybersecurity chief in what appears to be a turf war with the National Security Agency (NSA).
ICANN’s Board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush, said in a statement: “Rod Beckstrom has exactly the sort of strong personal and technical background that ICANN needs, as we enter a period of unprecedented growth and change for the Internet.”
“In addition to his cyber security expertise, he’s been a successful CEO of a global enterprise, done NGO work and volunteer work and a bestselling author. It’s an extreme understatement to say we are enthused.”
The announcement of Beckstrom as CEO has been praised by leading Internet figures including Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the “Internet’s father” Vint Cerf.
“Rod Beckstrom is strikingly well-prepared to undertake a new role as CEO of ICANN. His experience in industry and government equip him for this global and very challenging job,” Cerf said.
“The Internet has changed the way the world communicates and conducts commerce,” Beckstrom said in a statement.
“And in no small way, this multi-stakeholder, bottom-up organisation has been and will continue to be at the core of the Internet’s on-going evolution. Quite simply, the proof that ICANN works, is that the Internet works.”
However a reader to our post pointed out yesterday, Mr. Beckstrom’s personal domain shows what they would regard to be false whois information.
I’m not talking about having privacy on this account I’m talking about just plain false info:
Registrant:
Private
private
private, CA 11111
US
Domain Name: BECKSTROM.COM
Administrative Contact:
Private, Private private@private.com
Private
Private, CA 11111
US
111 111-1111 fax: (650) 618 0423
Mr. George Kirikos informs me that he, as a gesture of goodwill, let ICANN know of this situation before they hired Mr. Beckstrom and apparently neither Mr. Beckstrom or ICANN chose to put the correct whois info up.
Another situation where ICANN says do as I say not as I do.
All that info looks legit to me? Phone number looks legit too?
The information has been updated since yesterday.
http://whois.domaintools.com/beckstrom.com
Where are the the whois police when you need them . . .
Looks to be updated now:
Administrative Contact:
Beckstrom, Rod
161 Lowell Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
US
650-704-9024 fax: (650) 618 0423
So after he was hired he came into compliance with ICANN regulations.
Congrats
I don’t want to be cynical but it’s an inescapable process. My (our) hope would be that this fellow can make objective decisions and not be beholden to cronies. He deserves a chance.
The question is how many others, aside from Twomey, are compromised in their objectivity and/or blinded by big salaries and new tld windfall prospects.