DHS to attend online dating conference in Miami Beach

The Department of Homeland Security is set to participate in a discussion panel at an online dating industry conference in Miami in the coming days.

Tom Millar, chief of communications for the Department of Homeland Security’s United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is slated to discuss deceptive dating tactics in a January 24 panel at the iDate SuperConference event, said a statement from Ticondergoa Ventures, Inc., the sponsor of the conference. The event takes place on January 23-30, 2012 in Miami Beach.

Millar’s session is designed, said Ticonderoga Ventures, to help dating operators prevent fraud within their respective sites.

The appearance isn’t as unusual as it may seem. DHS and the CERT have been aggressively promoting online safety and security in the last few months through the agency’s “Stop. Think. Connect” campaign. On Jan. 10, DHS’ Web blog posted a series of tips on how the public and DHS employees can remain secure online.  According to Ticonderoga, Millar’s Miami appearance is part of DHS outreach program called “Cyber Week” in the city.

Online dating service providers will get their money’s worth from Millar on Cyber security. He joined US-CERT in 2007 and helped develop the organization’s response to the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Estonia in 2007, the outbreak of the Conficker worm and the DDoS attacks on major US government and commercial websites in 2009. He is currently US-CERT’s chief of communications. 

The Department of Homeland Security is in the Miami area from January 23-26, 2012 for the “Stop.Think.Connect.” campaign’s Miami Cyber Week Outreach Program, said Ticonderoga. Cyber Week will directly engage the greater Miami community in promoting awareness and dialogue about the dangers Americans face online, it said. Cyber Week is part of the larger DHS cyber mission to arm citizens with the resources and tools needed to protect themselves, their families, their communities, and the nation against growing cyber threats, it said.