SYDNEY — Rod Beckstrom, former director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Center, has been hired on to oversee the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), according to the Associated Press reporting from Australia.
Beckstrom, 48, replaces Paul Twomey, who was ICANN's third and longest-serving chief executive.
Though Beckstrom doesn’t have any real experience in the domain realm, he told the AP that he didn’t see it as problematic, since he views his new post as as an intermediary one, rather than one where he’ll be creating new policy.
“Our job at ICANN is to facilitate that dialogue and process,” he said. “I don’t see myself as being the leading source or expert.”
Beckstrom resigned from his post as cybersecurity chief amid territory battles, but nonetheless seems to feel that that experience will be vital to overseeing ICANN.
“A lot of people respect me for speaking the truth and being willing to do what is right, even when it’s not easy or popular with all parties,” Beckstrom told AP. “Certainly we will face the same challenges here at ICANN, as there are so many competing and conflicting demands on the domain names in the world.”
In 1998, the government selected the nonprofit, Marina del Rey, Calif.-based ICANN to oversee policies related to .com and other suffixes that define select Internet zones.
In recent times, ICANN has come under fire from major corporations for wanting to roll out new top-level domains (TLDs) beyond the current 21. The concern is that paying for and registering their brands could induce cybersquatting and legal battles. In March, ICANN postponed its initiative.
However, as reported yesterday by AVN.com, ICANN representatives at this week’s Sydney conference said they are pushing forward with rolling out the domains over the next year.
For more on ICANN, visit the AVN archives.
