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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 12, 2018

HIGH TECH POLICY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 […]