Defending the U.S. Communications Backbone in the Age of CyberWar: Dialogue & Career Retro with Mary Haynes

"Any country that intervenes in Taiwan will face serious consequences, including cyber attacks."

This statement in January by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made clear that the United States must be ready to defend itself in what many assume to be an inevitable conflict over Taiwan’s independence. It begs the question, how will we defend ourselves from such a powerful adversary with one of the best cyber armies in the world?

At the heart of the answer is the United States infrastructure: an interconnected web of both government and for profit companies that provide core services to the citizens. This public / private partnership is most evident where it matters most: energy and communications. Mary Haynes, Group Vice President of Charter Communications and industry cybersecurity veteran, has worked with presidential administrations across her multi-decade career to serve the twin goals of protecting her customers and making the country more resilient to attacks.

Our 72 minute conversation with Mary starts with how our communications industry is responding to the threat and the Biden administration’s somewhat unique approach. We explore two critical areas to mounting a credible defense: 1) Ensuring the security of consumer managed connectivity hardware and 2) Addressing traffic hijacking and route misadvertisements by shoring up BGP with RPKI. Throughout the conversation, we get a clear view into the combination of big picture thinking, technical acumen and diplomacy that have taken Mary to one of the top roles in defending the U.S. communications backbone.

While the first part of the conversation discusses her and the communications industry’s readiness to defend against nation state adversaries, the remainder of our interview serves as a brief career retrospective for Mary as she plans to start her transition into retirement later this year. On the topic of dealing with seismic technology shifts, she reflects on our response to the public cloud and how that should inform the cybersecurity industry’s response to the current advancements in artificial intelligence.

As we wrap up, Mary explains where we’ve made progress with regards to diversity and her advice for women considering a career in cybersecurity. Mary’s optimism and clarity of vision leave a strong impression throughout the dialogue; we wish her the very best as she moves from leader and practitioner to advisor and board member later this year.