Alex Stamos
Alex Stamos | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1979 Fair Oaks, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Cybersecurity expert |
| Years active | 2000s–present |
| Known for | Chief Security Officer at Facebook; co-founder of iSEC Partners; adjunct professor at Stanford University; co-founder of Krebs Stamos Group |
Alex Stamos (born 1979) is a prominent American specialist in cybersecurity and formerly held the position of chief security officer (CSO) at Facebook. He exited the company in 2018 amid conflicts with senior management regarding the approach to addressing Russian disinformation on the platform during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Early life and education
Stamos was born in 1979 and raised in Fair Oaks, California. He completed his secondary education at Bella Vista High School in 1997. Subsequently, he obtained a degree in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001.
Career
Stamos launched his professional journey at Loudcloud and subsequently served as a security consultant at @stake.
iSEC Partners
In 2004, Stamos co-established iSEC Partners, a cybersecurity consulting firm, alongside Joel Wallenstrom, Himanshu Dwivedi, Jesse Burns, and Scott Stender. During his tenure there, he became known for his research on vulnerabilities affecting forensics software, MacOS, the Operation Aurora cyberattack, and ethical considerations in security following the Snowden revelations.
He acted as an expert witness in legal proceedings related to digital privacy, encryption, and freedom of expression for clients including:
- The EFF in their lawsuit against Sony BMG
- Google during the Google Street View litigation
- Hacker George Hotz
- Activist Aaron Swartz
In 2010, iSEC Partners was acquired by NCC Group.
Artemis Internet
Following NCC Group’s acquisition of iSEC Partners, Stamos assumed the role of CTO at Artemis Internet, an internal startup within NCC. Artemis submitted an application to ICANN proposing a '.secure' gTLD with mandatory security requirements but ultimately secured operational rights for the '.trust' gTLD from Deutsche Post to support its services.
Stamos was granted five patents connected to innovations developed during his time at Artemis Internet.
Yahoo!
Stamos joined Yahoo! as Chief Security Officer in 2014. While there, he provided testimony before Congress concerning how online advertising affects security and privacy of user data. In 2015, he openly confronted NSA Director Michael S. Rogers over encryption backdoors during a cybersecurity event hosted by New America.
In 2015, Stamos was appointed Chief Security Officer at Facebook. He contributed to a whitepaper analyzing social media’s influence on election interference and delivered a keynote address at Black Hat 2017 promoting expanded definitions of security and advocating for increased diversity within the cybersecurity sector.
Due to internal disputes about handling Russian disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Stamos announced plans to leave Facebook in 2018 to pursue a research professorship at Stanford University.
He appeared in the PBS Frontline documentary The Facebook Dilemma discussing Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
Controversies
During Stamos’s leadership as CSO, Facebook encountered numerous challenges related to safety and security, including issues linked to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, inadequate removal of reported child-abuse content, failure to act against disinformation campaigns targeting journalists in the Philippines, involvement in the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and its contribution to the Rohingya genocide, which was described by the UN as "determining."
Stamos accepted accountability for Facebook’s insufficient reaction to Russian interference during the 2016 election cycle, stating he "deserve as much blame (or more) as any other exec at the company." Although a whitepaper coauthored by him noted that approximately $100,000 was spent on around 3,000 advertisements connected to nearly 470 fake accounts, subsequent investigations revealed that Russian influence reached up to 126 million users.
While Cambridge Analytica collected data from 87 million users prior to Stamos joining Facebook in 2015, the company delayed informing those affected until 2018. In July 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $100 million to resolve charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to investor misinformation between 2015 and 2018 about risks associated with misuse of user data.
Stanford University
By 2019, Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation identified Stamos as an adjunct professor, a visiting scholar affiliated with the Hoover Institution, and the head of the Stanford Internet Observatory.
Krebs Stamos Group
In early 2021, Stamos joined forces with former CISA director Chris Krebs to establish Krebs Stamos Group, a cybersecurity advisory firm. Their initial engagement was with SolarWinds, following a significant cyberattack attributed to suspected Russian hackers. The company specializes in providing cybersecurity guidance, with an emphasis on countering foreign threats and managing crises, striving to bolster both national and economic security.
Patents
- Securing client connections, application submitted April 11, 2012, patent issued July 14, 2015
- Domain policy specification and enforcement, application submitted April 11, 2012, patent issued August 5, 2014
- Computing resource policy regime specification and verification, application submitted May 9, 2014, patent issued August 11, 2014
- Assessing a computing resource for compliance with a computing resource policy regime specification, application submitted May 9, 2014, patent issued March 24, 2015
- Discovery engine, application submitted May 9, 2014, patent issued February 16, 2016