NEWS

“We at CIE of Lebanon, CIEL, view the Internet society, Lebanon chapter as an important organization that helps bringing Lebanon to the forefront of technological advance, especially when it comes to the Internet infrastructure in Lebanon and most importantly Safety on the net…

Many IT and business professionals, view Internet security as a luxury rather than a necessity, even though the trend is changing into the latter, it is important to keep in mind that the lack of perceived risk, does not mean no risk. In other words, when you send an email, do you know what happens to it before it reaches its destined user? It is that perceived lack of risk that is the danger, every user needs to eliminate, or minimize, by using technologies to safeguard all kind of online activities.  

I second our CEO reply to the Internet Society, on the occasion of the appointment of the new CEO Kathy Brown. Internet without the proper Digital certificate technology deployed is meaningless, you can own a car but if you don’t know how to drive it, you might hurt yourself and hurt others as well. At CIEL, we have been at the fore front of Internet security in Lebanon, and Dr Rustum has been ,and still is, the father of safety on the net in Lebanon and the Region.

To continue raising awareness of internet security, we thought to share with our readers the news of the appointment of the new CEO, Kathy Brown, for the Internet Society, and the reply of our CEO, see below…”
 

The ISOC Board conducted a very thorough search over 10 months to find the best candidate to lead the Internet Society. Through our search process, we identified and met with talented people from around the globe representing leaders from our broad Internet community and across a large number of industries.

The Internet is facing many new challenges ranging from the NSA pervasive surveillance, how the governance of the Internet should be structured, and if the current open Internet model is sustainable.  The Board looked for a person who can lead the Internet Society to meet these challenges and decided that Kathy Brown is the person to do that.  She is a proven leader
with in-depth knowledge of global Internet governance policy; well acquainted with the community, commercial, technical, government, and non-government organizations that are stakeholders in the debate around the future of the Internet; and a strong manager.  She has all of the qualities we were looking for in the next CEO of the Internet Society.

Kathy joins the Internet Society from global strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group, where she was a senior advisor.  For more than a decade prior, Kathy was Senior Vice President for Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility at Verizon.  In that role, she helped Verizon identify and navigate emerging digital issues and led its global corporate responsibility
initiatives, overseeing an investment of more than $60 million a year in programs and grants that helped support Internet development. In 2010 she partnered with ISOC to launch a highly successful forum on the Internet and higher education in East Africa.  In addition, she served on Verizon's corporate councils for the development of the company's online privacy and
content policies and promoted Verizon's Human Rights Statement and Supplier Code of Conduct.

In her policy role at Verizon, she led the company's international public policy engagement through a period of dynamic change.  She represented the company in the successful adoption by the OECD of principles for Internet policy making and was a member of the U.S. delegation to the ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications treaty negotiations.  Kathy
joined Verizon from Washington D.C. law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where she was a partner specializing in legal and regulatory communications policy.

Earlier in her career, Kathy served in U.S. President Clinton's Administration where she was deeply involved in policy development that was instrumental to the deployment and adoption of the global Internet.  She served as Head of the Office of Policy and Development at the National Telecommunications Information Administration and then as Chief of Staff to Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E. Kennard.  At the FCC, she managed the staff supporting Chairman Kennard's historic decision to keep the Internet unregulated, to fund the E-rate, and to increase radio spectrum availability to fuel wireless technology innovation. Before moving to Washington D.C., Kathy held senior roles for 15 years in government
service in New York.

In February 2013, Internet Society CEO Lynn St. Amour announced her decision to step down at the end of her contract. Since joining the Internet Society in 1998 and at the helm since 2001, Lynn has worked tirelessly and passionately to establish the Internet Society as an internationally respected expert on Internet governance, and technical, development, and
policy issues.  She has made ISOC what it is today.  The Board and I greatly appreciate all her hard work and wish her the very best in her future endeavors.  Lynn will continue to work with Kathy through the end of January to ensure a smooth transition.

The press release, Kathy Brown's bio, and related material can be found at:

 http://www.internetsociety.org


CIEL / GlobalSign CEO reply:

This is to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your broadcast announcing the appointment of Ms Cathy Brown as the next CEO of ISOC.

Well, we wish to congratulate both ISOC and Ms Brown on this appointment as I am confident Ms Brown would as always do her level best to promote our goal in this vital Sector. Maintaining high standards of operation must not only be protected, but enhancing the necessity to secure all types of Internet communications is equally important. I think special emphasis must
be made on Security issues to allow all users arrive at a one common dominator -> The safe and confident transactions which actually will boost exponentially the number of users in all parts of the World regardless of the region.

As we are all approaching Christmas & the New Year, I wish to seize this opportunity to wish you all at ISOC and particularly our New CEO Cathy Brown a Merry Christmas & a very happy rewarding, stable New Year - And let peace prevail!. May I also ask of you to please convey my congratulations and the Christmas greetings to Cathy. Kind regards,

Dr Salah A. Rustum
President