Fellowship aims to develop and showcase open-source projects with “this Internet’s” rising stars
HUMAN Security, Inc. (formerly White Ops), a cybersecurity company that protects enterprises from bot attacks to keep digital experiences human, today announced the establishment of the Dan Kaminsky Fellowship in honor of its late co-founder and chief scientist.
The Dan Kaminsky Fellowship will be awarded to the human (or humans) who epitomizes benevolent internet innovation. Embracing the spirit of the Fellowship’s namesake, the Fellow’s project will touch on a problem that, if solved, will improve people’s lives on the internet. This is a selfless open-source project aiming to help without expectation of a “thank you.” Like Kaminsky, the Fellow is self-driven to answer the call. Additionally, HUMAN strongly encourages individuals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds in cybersecurity to apply for the Fellowship.
“The success of this Internet is widely understood to depend on open-source software development and the hacker gift culture. Our co-founder, Dan Kaminsky, was a paragon of that gift culture,” said HUMAN Co-Founder and President Michael Tiffany. “With this Fellowship, we hope to support talented humans on their quests with money and support resources not typically given to this kind of thankless, but vital, work.”
Dan Kaminsky rose to hacker fame when, in 2008, he notably uncovered a major flaw in the fabric of the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) that could be manipulated by cybercriminals if exposed. Instead of exploiting the significant vulnerability for his own advantage or monetary gain, he led a stealth, collaborative effort with the brightest security minds in the world to fix it and then presented his findings at Black Hat to further educate the industry and ensure security of what he would later call “this” Internet.
“Dan wasn’t just a great builder; he was also a great presenter. Sharing and presenting, and preparing our Fellows to do so at their best, will be a major piece of this Fellowship,” said HUMAN Co-Founder and CEO Tamer Hassan. “The culmination of the Fellowship will be a presentation at least one of the major cybersecurity conferences, such as Black Hat, DEF CON and RSA Conference. That may sound daunting, but the Fellows will have all of HUMAN’s resources, including Michael and me, to prepare and share their project.”
HUMAN is offering its Fellows a year of full-time employment to dedicate to deep work on their open source project. Fellows will enjoy the same employment benefits as all HUMAN employees, such as access to the NYC HUMAN workspace, peer reviewers, and HUMAN-only insights that could accelerate their work. Additionally, the Fellows will be given a HUMAN advisor to report to that will help them navigate resources within HUMAN. Lastly, HUMAN will help the Fellows share their work with the world at the conferences Kaminsky loved, like Black Hat, DEF CON and RSA Conference.
Applications for the Dan Kaminsky Fellowship open on August 2, 2021 and will close on October 1, 2021. To learn more about the Fellowship and how to apply visit https://dankaminskyfellowship.splashthat.com.
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