Meet Passcode's Influencers
Big thinkers vote in a regular survey on the most critical issues in security and privacy.
Illustration for Passcode Influencers Poll.
Jake Turcotte
The poles of debate are still forming in the Digital Age. There is no common philosophy defining what constitutes a "hawk" or a "dove" in cyberwar. International norms for countries' behavior on the Internet are not yet established. There's still no consensus about the appropriate balance between personal privacy and national security when it comes to government surveillance or private-sector encryption. Many companies and organizations are divided about the best defenses that will shield them from online听attacks.
Passcode, 海角大神's new section on security and privacy, formed an Influencers Poll to foster debate and discussion in this space. We regularly survey a wide swath of in-the-know experts about the most pressing issues 鈥� and share their answers and opinions with our听readers.
To form our pool of Passcode Influencers, we gathered more than 160 experts from across government, the private sector, research, and the privacy advocacy community.
From government, they include the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator听Michael Daniel, State Department Cybersecurity Coordinator听Chris Painter, cochair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus Rep.听Jim Langevin, and chairman of the House Cybersecurity Subcommittee听John Ratcliffe. From the intelligence community, our pool includes two former National Security Agency directors, retired four-star Gens.听Keith Alexander听补苍诲听Michael Hayden.听
We have heavy-hitter cybersecurity pros, including including In-Q-Tel chief information security officer听Dan Geer, cryptologist听Bruce Schneier, and inventor of the Domain Name System听Paul Mockapetris 鈥� and senior security and privacy officials at major companies such as Google, Facebook, Visa, and Toyota. and we have key figures from the privacy community, including the incoming executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation听Cindy Cohn听and head of Center for Democracy and Technology听Nuala O'Connor. You can explore the biographies of the experts in our elite group听below.
Your opinion on these emerging issues matters,听too.
These are not topics that should only be accessible to those working in government or industry, or have Computer Science degrees. That's why we will always have a companion readers poll after every Influencers survey, asking the same or a similar question of Passcode readers to see how close the experts' views and comments align with what the public听thinks.
Who are the Influencers?听
Chris Ahlberg,听Dave Aitel,听Keith Alexander, Thad Allen,听Dmitri Alperovitch,听Janna Anderson,听Stewart Baker,听James Bamford, Kevin Bankston,听Suzanne Barber,听Caleb Barlow,听Ann Barron-DiCamillo,听Michael Beckerman,听Alvaro Bedoya, Richard Bejtlich,听John Bruce,听Julie Brill,听Charles Brooks,听David Brumley, Eric Burger, Hilary Cain,听Jon Callas,听Ryan Calo,听Daniel Castro,听Jeffrey Carr, Steven Chabinsky,听Amy Chang,听Bobby Chesney, Frank Cilluffo,听Cindy Cohn,听Gabriella Coleman,听Joshua Corman,听Art Coviello,听Lorrie Faith Cranor, Tom Cross,听Chris Cummiskey,听Michael Daniel,听Neil Daswani,听海角大神 Dawson,听Mike DeCesare,听Joel de la Garza,听Chris Doggett, Phil Dunkelberger,听Steve Durbin, Jenny Durkan, Nicole Eagan,听Tor Ekeland,听Keith Enright,听Matthew Eggers,听Victoria Espinel,听Nate Fick,听Chris Finan, Randall Fort,听Camille Francois,听Dan Geer,听Harley Geiger,听Anup Ghosh, Nathaniel Gleicher,听Tsion Gonen, Bob Goodlatte, Rick Gordon,听Jeremy Grant, Matthew Green, Jeff Greene,听Renee Guttmann,听Geoff Hancock,听Robert Hansen,听Jim Harper,听Jack Harrington, Jason Hart,听Michael Hayden,听Jay Healey,听Angela L. Heise,听Jennifer Henley, Bill Hill,听Chris Hopfensperger, Rick Howard,听Trevor Hughes,听Will Hurd,听Rodney Joffe,听Ely Kahn,听Dan Kaminsky, Jay Kaplan,听Jim Langevin, Robert Lee,听Mike Leiter,听Martin Libicki,听Kris Lovejoy,听Jane Holl Lute,听Erel Margalit,听Jeffrey Massimilla,听Kevin Mahaffey,听Andrea Matwyshyn, Sascha Meinrath,听Stuart McClure,听Angela McKay,听Terrell McSweeny,听Marten Mickos,听Charlie Miller,听Paul Mockapetris,听Udi Mokady, HD Moore,听Jeff Moss, Scott Montgomery,听Katie Moussouris,听Carey Nachenberg,听Nuala O'Connor,听Maureen Ohlhausen, Jacob Olcott,听G眉nter Ollmann,听Mike Papay, Christopher Painter,听Tom Patterson, John Pescatore, Riana Pfefferkorn,听Vikram Phatak,听Jules Polonetsky, Andy Purdy,听John Ratcliffe,听Jonathan Reiber,听Ellen Richey, Chris Riley,听Space Rogue,听Marc Rotenberg,听Chris Rouland,听Michael Samway,听Julian Sanchez, Molly Sauter,听Bruce Schneier, Ari Schwartz,听Evan Selinger,听Adam Segal,听Nick Selby,听Nico Sell,听Teresa Shea, Lou Shipley,听Peter Singer,听Abigail Slater,听Chris Soghoian, Ashkan Soltani,听Dug Song, Gib Sorebo,听Alex Stamos,听Amie Stepanovich,听Richard Stiennon,听Robert Stratton, Michael Sulmeyer, Peter Swire,听Melanie Teplinsky, Allen Thompson,听JJ Thompson,听Adam Tyler, Chris Valasek, John Watters,听David Weinstein,听Mark Weatherford,听Steve Weber,听Daniel Weitzner, Eric Wenger, Heather West,听Tarah Wheeler,听Nicole Wong, Chris Wysopal, Amit Yoran,听Chris Young,听Elana听Zeide,听Yan Zhu, and听Jonathan Zittrain.听
Recent poll results
March 27, 2017: What is the most urgent cybersecurity or privacy challenge?听
What do you think? .听
February 1, 2017:听Influencers: US should hit Russia harder for political hacks听
What do you think?听.
November 21, 2016:听Influencers: Trump won鈥檛 improve cybersecurity
What do you think?听.
September 21, 2016:听Influencers: Calling it 鈥榗ritical infrastructure鈥� won鈥檛 protect the vote
What do you think?听.
July 13, 2016:听Influencers: Antihacking law obstructs security research听
What do you think?听.
May 9, 2016:听Influencers oppose expanding federal hacking authorities听
What do you think?听.
March 24, 2016:听Influencers: FBI should disclose San Bernardino iPhone security hole to Apple听
What do you think?听.
March 1, 2016:听Influencers: Incoming federal CISO can improve US government鈥檚 cybersecurity听
Feb. 19, 2016:听Influencers: Apple should not help FBI crack San Bernardino iPhone听
What do you think?听.
Jan. 27, 2016:听Influencers: Tech firms should do more to block extremist content
What do you think?听.
Nov. 20, 2015:听Influencers: Paris attacks don鈥檛 justify government access to encryption听
What do you think?听.
Nov. 10, 2015:听Influencers: Europeans should be able to sue over data misuse in US听
What do you think?听.
Oct. 20, 2015:听Influencers: China鈥檚 arrests of hackers don鈥檛 prove commitment to stop economic espionage听
What do you think?听.
Oct. 14, 2015:听Influencers: Revise copyright law so researchers can tinker with car software听
What do you think?听.
Sept. 29, 2015:听Companies鈥� lawsuits to prevent the disclosure of vulnerabilities will chill security research, 74 percent of Influencers say听
What do you think?听
Sept. 16, 2015:听US should sanction China for economic espionage, 73 percent of Influencers say听
What do you think?听
June 29, 2015:听OPM chief should be held responsible for breach, 84 percent of Influencers say听
What do you think?听
June 10, 2015:听77 percent of Influencers oppose US plan to limit export of software flaws听
What do you think?听
May 6, 2015:听Congress should end NSA bulk data collection, 72 percent of Influencers say听
What do you think?听
April 1, 2015:听Companies should not be allowed to hack back, 82 percent of Influencers say听
What do you think?听听
March 11, 2015:听Stronger encryption on consumer devices won't actually hurt national security, 73 percent of Influencers say
What do you think?听
Feb. 25, 2015:听Obama's info-sharing plan won't significantly reduce security breaches, 87 percent of Influencers say
What do you think?听
How does the poll work?
Passcode regularly surveys the Influencers on a hot topic in the news. Their results are, by default, off-the-record. We tabulate the results in aggregate, and attribute their comments in a story we write about each poll simply as 鈥渁n Influencer.鈥�
However, Influencers also have an option to go on-the-record and post comments by name. We believe this opt-in method allows Influencers to vote and make comments candidly 鈥� but the option to take a stand publicly.
Once the results are in, we post the story and the results on Passcode and in our newsletter. Then, we announce a link to a public poll for readers to vote and leave comments on the same听issue.