The Future Cybersecurity Landscape *WEBINAR* with QWERX CTO John Ellingson
Register today to hear QWERX Chief Technology Officer John Ellingson discuss the future cybersecurity landscape in a webinar hosted by Mike Wardle of Z/Yen.
When: Tuesday, February 28th at 10:00am EST
Cost: Free
Background: Edward Tenner writes about the revenge effect in technology in his book, The Revenge of Unintended Consequences. He points out specifically that security is an example of where we can see the revenge effect.
“Security is another window on revenge effects. Power door locks, now standard on most cars, increase the sense of safety. But they have helped triple or quadruple the number of drivers locked out over the last two decades— costing $400 million a year and exposing stranded drivers to the very criminals the locks were supposed to defeat.”
When we created the backbone of our current device authentication system, PKI, we did not intend to create certificates that have become the target for attackers to steal and the point of entry for approximately 80% of successful data breaches. The purloined credential has given rise to the growth of progeny technology in Two Factor Authentication to deal with the vulnerability created by the strong, but stealable certificate meant to protect. Adding insult to the injury, we frequently find ourselves codifying the revenge effect’s vulnerability into industry standards and regulations.
We may be approaching an opportunity to break the hold of the revenge effect. It appears to some that quantum computing could become both a technical and commercial reality. As we contemplate what that could mean, we should pause for a moment and contemplate what unintended consequences might be lurking in the quantum shadows.
Speaker: John Ellingson started his digital career with the Boeing Company working on the 747 aircraft in the late 1960s. He became a computer-literate attorney performing what is today known as forensic accounting. As the founding chairman of the ABA/YLD Subcommittee on Tax Treatment in Bankruptcy, John worked with the Congressional Joint Tax Committee to create the Internal Revenue Code Provision enabling the tax-free merger and acquisition of debtor corporations. This law became part of the Bankruptcy Tax Act of 1980. John had a national M&A practice in this area and obtained the first IRS Private Letter Ruling on this Code section. As a result of this practice, he observed a frequent element of white-collar crime in many bankruptcy cases, and he subsequently developed and patented a method to detect identity fraud. He continued in this role with American Operations Corporation and ASM Research before founding infOsci LLC and later QWERX, Inc. For 20 years John served as a liaison officer with the United States Naval Academy and the United States Military Academy. He also served on the Service Academy Selection Boards for two U.S. Senators.
Chairman: Mike Wardle is CEO and the Head Of Indices for Z/Yen Group, managing work on the development and delivery of the Global Financial Centres Index, Global Green Finance Index, and Smart Centres Index. Mike worked as a civil servant for almost 20 years mostly within the field of education policy. He was a director and then Chief Executive of the General Social Care Council, establishing the regulation of social workers. Mike's career moved into consultancy, programme management and coaching and he worked with Z/Yen for six years delivering programme management services to the Church of England, Unison, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust before taking up his current role.
