Cybersecurity April 22, 2021

Brian and Tom 23CYBERSECURITY
THURSDAY, APRIL 22
7:00 PM Meeting
“The Risk of a Castastrophic Cyberattack on the United States: Or Has It Already Happened?”
6:15 PM – Informal Sharing
If you would like to attend this ZOOM meeting, please send an email to president@srvdems.org.

The San Ramon Valley Democratic Club welcomes Dr. Bryan Cunningham, first Executive Director of UC Irvine’s multidisciplinary Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, and Tom Kemp, a Silicon Valley-based technology entrepreneur and CEO focused on cybersecurity that has co-founded, invested in and built multiple tech companies that have either gone public or been acquired and have created over 1500 jobs. Dr. Cunningham will share the results of recent empirical research by the UC Irvine Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute and School of Law into the risks of a catastrophic cyberattack on US infrastructure and lay out some potential measures to mitigate this risk. It will also inform attendees on the current and future work of the Institute and opportunities to get involved. Tom Kemp will discuss cybersecurity from a more practical perspective and explain what is really involved in keeping companies safe from cyber threats.

Dr. Bryan Cunningham, first Executive Director of UC Irvine’s multidisciplinary Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. Cunningham is focused on solution-oriented strategies address technical, legal and policy challenges to combat cyber threats, protect individual privacy and civil liberties, maintain public safety and economic and national security and empower Americans to take better control of their digital security.

Cunningham is a leading international expert on cybersecurity law and policy, a former White House lawyer and adviser and a media commentator on cybersecurity, technology and surveillance issues. He has appeared on Bloomberg, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and other networks.

Cunningham has extensive experience in senior U.S. government intelligence and law enforcement positions. He served as Deputy Legal Adviser to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He also served six years in the Clinton Administration as a senior CIA officer and federal prosecutor. He drafted significant portions of the Homeland Security Act and related legislation, helping to shepherd them through Congress. He was a principal contributor to the first National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, worked closely with the 9/11 Commission and provided legal advice to the President, National Security Advisor, the National Security Council, and other senior government officials on intelligence, terrorism, cyber security and other related matters.

Our second speaker, Tom Kemp, is a Silicon Valley-based technology entrepreneur and CEO focused on cybersecurity that has co-founded, invested in and built multiple tech companies that have either gone public or been acquired and have created over 1500 jobs. Most recently as founder and CEO of Centrify, a leading cybersecurity vendor, Kemp managed an organization of over 500+ people and over 5000 customers. For his leadership within cybersecurity and in the Silicon Valley tech community, in 2018 Kemp was selected as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award Finalist in Northern California.

After Centrify was acquired in 2018, Kemp has spent the last 2 years as an executive board member of an education non-profit, coaching high school softball, was a policy volunteer for the Biden/Harris campaign, was a Policy Advisor to Californians for Consumer Privacy, and a volunteer that led the marketing efforts to pass California Proposition 24, the nation’s most comprehensive privacy law.