Jeff Moss (hacker)

Early life and education

Jeff received his first computer at the age of 10. He became fascinated because he wasn't old enough to drive a car or vote, but he could engage in adult conversation with people all over the country.

Moss graduated from Gonzaga University with a BA in Criminal Justice. He worked for Ernst & Young, LLP in their Information System Security division and was a director at Secure Computing Corporation where he helped establish the Professional Services Department in the United States, Asia, and Australia.

Security conferences

In 1993 he created the first DEF CON hacker convention, based around a party for members of a Fido hacking network in Canada. It slowly grew, and by 1999 was attracting major attention.

In 1997 he created Black Hat Briefings computer security conference that brings together a variety of people interested in information security. He sold Black Hat in 2005 to CMP Media, a subsidiary of UK-based United Business Media, for a reported $13.9 million USD. DEF CON was not included in the sale.

Later career

Moss is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher. Jeff, when in Washington D.C., is a regular meeting attendant.

In 2009 Moss was sworn into the Homeland Security Advisory Council of the Barack Obama administration.

On 28 April 2011 Jeff Moss was appointed ICANN Chief Security Officer.

In July 2012, Secretary Janet Napolitano directed the Homeland Security Advisory Council to form the Task Force on CyberSkills in response to the increasing demand for the best and brightest in the cybersecurity field across industry, academia and government. The Task Force, co-chaired by Jeff Moss and Alan Paller, conducted extensive interviews with experts from government, the private sector, and academia in developing its recommendations to grow the advanced technical skills of the DHS cybersecurity workforce and expand the national pipeline of men and women with these cybersecurity skills. On October 1, the HSAC unanimously approved sending the Task Force recommendations to the Secretary.

In October 2013, Jeff announced that he would be stepping down from his position at ICANN at the end of 2013.

In 2013, Jeff was appointed as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, associated with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, within the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

In 2014, Jeff joined the Georgetown University School of Law School Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.

In 2017, Jeff was named a Commissioner at the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. The GCSC is composed of 24 prominent independent Commissioners representing a wide range of geographic regions as well as government, industry, technical and civil society stakeholders with legitimacy to speak on different aspects of cyberspace. The Commission's stated aim is to develop proposals for norms and policies to enhance international security and stability and guide responsible state and non-state behavior in cyberspace.

Current position

Moss is currently based in Seattle, where he works as a security consultant for a company that is hired to test other companies' computer systems. He has been interviewed on issues including the internet situation between the United States and China, spoofing and other e-mail threats and the employment of hackers in a professional capacity, including in law enforcement.

Recent speaking and participation

Jeff has presented at a wide range of venues, worldwide, either as a keynote speaker, individual, or as part of panel discussions and group deliberations. Examples include:

• Panelist, "Georgetown University, Institute for Law, Science and Global Security: International Engagement on Cyber" (PDF). , Washington D.C., USA, March. 2014
• Keynote speaker, CODE BLUE, Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 2014
• Keynote speaker, NANOG 60 NANOG, Atlanta, USA, Feb. 2014
• Speaker, World Knowledge Forum, Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 2013
• Korean Cyber Summit, Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 2013
• New Yorker Festival, “Spy vs. Spy”, USA, Oct. 2013
• Speaker, Special lecture on "Internet Governance" European Forum Alpbach, Austria, Aug. 2013
• CFR Task Force Report, "Defending an Open, Global, Secure and Resilient Internet", USA, June 2013
• Panelist, RSA, "BYOD: Here Today, Here to Stay?", San Francisco, USA, Feb. 2013
• Co-chair, DHS (HSAC) Cyberskills Task Force, USA, 2012
• Security & Defence Agenda, Brussels, Belgium, 2012, Cyber Initiative
• Speaker, Russian Internet Governance Forum, Moscow, Russian Federation, 2012
• World Economic Forum on East Asia, Bangkok, Thailand 2012.
• 6th Annual Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA) Conference “A World in Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities”, USA, 2012
• RSA, USA, 2012
• XCon, Beijing, China, 2012
• NRO Cyber Conference for National Programs, USA, 2012
• NSA “Cyber Red Dawn” symposium, USA, 2012
• West Point Senior Conference, USA, 2012
• Contributor NATO CCD COE National Cyber Security Framework Manual, 2012
• Co-Chair, DHS (HSAC) Community Resiliency Task Force, USA, 2011
• Georgetown University’s Institute for Law, Science and Global Security 2nd annual conference on international engagement in cyberspace, USA, 2010
• DHS Cyber Storm III exercise, USA, 2010, Participated as “the Internet”
• RSA, USA, 2009 - Core infrastructure security threat
• Keynote speaker, inaugural CodeGate conference, Seoul, South Korea, 2008
• Inaugural DeepSec, Vienna, Austria, 2007
• Panelist, Democracy, Terrorism and the Open Internet panel, Madrid, Spain, 2005

Film

Moss was an Executive Producer on DEFCON: The Documentary. The film follows the four days of the conference, events and people (attendees and staff), and covers history and philosophy behind DEF CON's success and unique experiences. He was also a cast member in the film Code 2600. Moss also works with Mr. Robot's technical consulting team.