Wes Hardaker @ ISI

Wes Hardaker

Networking and Cyber Security Division
Affiliated Scientist
hardaker AT isi.edu
GPG Key

About

I'm a google employee that still actively collaborates with USC's Information Sciences Institute as an Affiliated Scientist. I participate actively in the operation and management of the Internet’s b.root-servers.net DNS critical infrastructure, which handles 1/13th of all the world’s top level DNS requests. I'm also the principal representative for USC/ISI's DNS root server in the Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) in the multi-stakeholder Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) organization, where I am also a member of the ICANN Board of Directors.

My work and colloration with USC/ISI focuses on cybersecurity generall and internet standards development and research programs to enhance the DNS and other Internet protocols.

I have been actively participating for over 25 years in the IETF open standards body that defines internet protocols, and recently served as a member of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).

Past Research Projects

As I am no longer a direct employee of USC/ISI, this is now a list of the projects I ran while there:

Traffic Analysis of Fluctuating Flows - automated deep packet anomoly analysis.
DNS, Identity, and Internet Naming for Experimentation and Research (DIINER)
Community Labeling and Sharing of Security and Networking Test datasets (CLASSNET)
Platform for Innovative use of Vehicle Open Telematics (PIVOT)

Recent News / Results

Recent NEWS:

2025-02-18: I was a guest interview on the ISI/nsiders podcast. I discussed my history in helping standardize Internet protocols and my aims to improve Internet understanding and education, among other things.
2024-07-16: I've create two interesting Tesla datasets: 2 weeks of house network captures from a Tesla car and charger and multiple recordings of Tesla distance battery estimations vs reality.
2024-06-27: I've created an extensive intrusion detection anomoly analysis software package called Traffic-Taffy. It compares extensive deep-packet analysis breakdowns from anomoly traffic against a baseline "normal" set of traffice to determine "what the anomoly contains". Watch talk 1 or talk 2, and give it a whirl! Thank you to the Comcast Innovation grant for sponsoring this work.
2022-12-14: My DARPA/CHASE sponsored project has produced a GAWSEED Internet Feed of Threats (GiFT) webpage that shows daily updated results from the GAWSEED project. Available on the GiFT site are daily downloadable Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and other continual analysis results. Some of the content is restricted to account holders, so reach out to me if you're interested in an account that provides you access to the browsable analytic sections.
2022-11-05: I've published an analysis of measuring Carbon Dioxide while traveling to and from London, UK for a conference. Measuring CO2 can theoritically be used as a proxy for measuring airborne virus risk, but you have to think carefully about it.
2022-01-14: I recently ran across an interesting obfuscated python script, which I've analyzed and broken down into parts to highlight its multiple levels of obfuscation
2021-09-20: Viktor Dukhovni and I wrote a a response to the US Government's proposal [1] [2] [3] to use MTA-STS for securing E-Mail
2020-05-01: A quick check to see whether existing Root Server Operators are listed as authoratative for any other TLDs shows "nope" .
2020-03-21: "The Sky is not Falling" - A response to a misleading DNSSEC measurement paper
2019-11-20: Results of a quick attemp to measure the size of Mozilla's DOH Canary Domain
2019-10:Our recent paper "Roll, Roll, Roll Your Root: A Comprehensive Analysis of the First Ever DNSSEC Root KSK Rollover" [pdf] won the distinguished paper award at IMC 2019
2019-04-04: BIND resolver software with an old DNSKEY trust anchor can sometimes generate too many queries.

For more news, see the ANT Research Blog

Memberships and Activities

Member of the ICANN Board of Directors
Manager of B-Root Operations
IETF Standards: chair of SATP and DANCE
ICANN's Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC).
Founder and lead developer of the Net-SNMP package.
Past member of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
Past Citrus Circuits software mentor.

References

Personal Interests

Photography
Backpacking and hiking
Amateur Radio
Geocaching
All things science

Social media