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Eric Wenger

Senior Director, Technology Policy

Global Government Affairs

Eric Wenger is Senior Director for technology policy and leads Cisco's government affairs work globally on a range of policy issues, including: cybersecurity, 5G, IOT, lawful intercept, and data protection. Eric came to Cisco from Microsoft, where he was Policy Counsel. He was a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and a Special Assistant United States Attorney in DC’s Computer Hacking & Intellectual Property Unit. He served as an Attorney in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection and an Attorney Advisor to then Commissioner Leary. He was also Assistant Attorney General in New York, where he started the first statewide law enforcement unit in the U.S. focused on e-commerce. Eric earned his undergraduate degree at Cornell University and graduated with Honors from George Washington University Law School.

Articles

October 25, 2018

HIGH TECH POLICY

Fighting for Encryption & Security Around the World

2 min read

Last week, my colleagues Tim Fawcett, Matt Carling and I had the honour and pleasure of representing Cisco in a hearing before theAustralian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security....

October 12, 2018

HIGH TECH POLICY

A Modern Approach to Cybersecurity & Privacy in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement

1 min read

The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA) covers a wide range of trade issues, but it also demonstrates how all three governments share a common vision and commitment to effective cyber-risk management.

June 15, 2018

HIGH TECH POLICY

CLOUD Act Forecast: Opportunity for Greater Transparency

4 min read

Passage of the CLOUD Act in the U.S. and the subsequent dismissal of the “Ireland Warrant” litigation raises two important questions about cross-border data storage and regulation.

December 21, 2017

HIGH TECH POLICY

US Justice Department Advises Prosecutors: Seek Data from Enterprises Rather than Cloud Service Providers

2 min read

At Cisco, we have long advocated that “data and communications stored in the cloud should receive equivalent protections against unreasonable government search and seizure just like documents stored on premises or in paper files.” I was, therefore, pleased to see new guidance from my former colleagues in the US Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section supporting […]

December 6, 2017

HIGH TECH POLICY

Cisco Weighs in on Mobile Privacy Case

2 min read

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court took up a case, U.S. v. Carpenter, that turns upon the “third-party doctrine.” The question before the court is whether cell phone location information obtained from a third-party mobile service provider should require the government to get a “probable cause” warrant instead of a court order requiring a lower […]

February 28, 2017

HIGH TECH POLICY

Cisco Applauds Unanimous House Vote Passing Email Privacy Act

2 min read

Cisco has long supported updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to better protect customer data and communications stored with third-party providers against unwarranted searches and seizures.  We, therefore, applaud the unanimous voice vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Email Privacy Act (H.R. 387) introduced by Representatives Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and […]

October 17, 2016

GOVERNMENT

A New Hope? A Bipartisan Plan to Modernize Federal Government IT

2 min read

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a good time to look back and to note candidly where more effort is needed to improve cyber risk management.  While it is a strong champion for this cause, the U.S. federal government has itself faced significant challenges in securing information technology systems in the wake of the 2015 Office of […]

July 20, 2016

HIGH TECH POLICY

Cisco Supports Court Decision Protecting Customer Cloud Data

2 min read

We welcome and strongly support Microsoft’s successful challenge of a federal criminal search warrant for messages stored on an email server located in Ireland. The decision from the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals supports the protection of data stored in the cloud, and it provides overseas customers of US companies greater confidence that their […]

May 25, 2016

SECURITY

The Second Law of IoT: Connect Consciously

2 min read

In Part One of this Cybersecurity for IoT Blog Series, I noted that we should assume that everything will someday be connected—even those “things” designed without any networking capability. However, we should also be deliberate when deciding what to attach and what to isolate. When a link is established, we should know not only that […]

February 25, 2016

SECURITY

The First Law of IoT: Things that Can Be Connected, Will Be Connected

2 min read

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate on a panel discussion of Internet of Things (IoT) privacy and security at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This week, Barcelona plays host to the 2016 Mobile World Congress, where technology leaders convene to discuss what’s next in the mobile industry. Both events point to a […]

August 14, 2015

SECURITY

A Global Cybergovernance Framework: The Real Infrastructure Needed to Support a More Secure Internet

2 min read

As part of a broader “Cybersecurity Call to Action” outlined in the Cisco 2015 Midyear Security Report, Cisco has called for the development of a cohesive, multi-stakeholder, global cybergovernance framework. Investing in the development of such a framework is essential to supporting innovation and economic growth in business on the global stage. While there has […]

July 20, 2015

HIGH TECH POLICY

Concerns about the Department of Commerce’s Proposed Export Rule under the Wassenaar Arrangement

1 min read

Today, Cisco filed comments on a Proposed Rule published by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) in an effort to comply with an international agreement called the Wassenaar Arrangement. The proposal would regulate a wide array of technologies used in security research as controlled exports, in the same manner as if […]

February 27, 2015

HIGH TECH POLICY

Cisco Supports LEADS Act

1 min read

The world’s economy is increasingly interconnected. Continued economic growth stems from companies being able to move data freely across borders without being caught between conflicting legal requirements.  Governments also face challenges in their efforts to protect public safety when data needed to conduct lawful investigations are stored in the cloud. Internet users, in turn, expect that their […]

November 10, 2014

HIGH TECH POLICY

Time to reform ECPA

3 min read

Recently, I wrote about the LEADS Act proposed by U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Dean Heller (R-NV), and Christopher Coons (D-DE), which offers a thoughtful approach to a knotty problem—whether and how governments should be empowered to demand the production of data across sovereign national borders. Their bill suggests that with rare exceptions, governments should […]

October 15, 2014

HIGH TECH POLICY

A “Significant First Step” toward Legislative Reform of Cross-Border Governmental Demands for Data

3 min read

Earlier this year, Cisco and Apple jointly filed an amicus brief supporting Microsoft in its appeal of a U.S. Federal Court decision requiring it to hand over customer data held in an Irish data center. In our filing, we made the case that the ruling should be overturned because it leaves companies in jeopardy of violating […]