David Dittrich has been actively involved in security operations for nearly 20 years. He got his start supporting others whose computers had been compromised and maintains an applied focus to his research, striving to teach others what he has learned. Dave was the first person to publicly describe Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in 1999, precursors to today's botnets, and has a keen interest in identifying technical, legal, and ethical options to allow advanced responses to advanced threats. Dave was one of the original members of the Honeynet Project and has served as an Officer for much of the group's history (currently as Chief Legal and Ethics Officer). He coined the term "Active Response Continuum" in 2005 to describe the socio-technical hurdles that defenders must overcome and to guide researchers and security operators in bridging the gaps between skill levels of responders and between private actors and law enforcement, all the while acting in ways that maintain trust and confidence from the general public. Recently, Dave has published several documents concerning the ethical issues faced by computer security researchers and others responding to advanced malware threats, and has served as a member on one of the University of Washington's Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committees since 2009. He, along with Erin Kenneally, are co-authors of the Department of Homeland Security document, "The Menlo Report: Ethical Principles Guiding Information and Communication Technology Research," published in the Federal Register in December, 2011.
