The Internet Is Fraying, But Maybe Security Can Hold It Together
Heather Flanigan
BSides Seattle 2026 · Day 1 · Track 1
Heather Flanigan, a 16-year veteran of digital identity and internet standards development, presented a strategic analysis of how the global internet is fragmenting under the weight of diverging legal, policy, and regulatory pressures -- and what this means for cybersecurity practitioners. The talk, adapted from her blog series "The End of the Global Internet" on Spherical Cow Consulting, argues that the shared assumptions underlying internet infrastructure (global DNS resolution, broadly trusted root certificates, data export capability, reachability of threat intelligence sources) are becoming increasingly conditional rather than reliable.
AI review
A policy-oriented talk about internet fragmentation and its impact on security operations. While the Schrems II and Entrust examples are relevant, the talk lacks technical depth -- no new research, no exploits, no tools, no measurable findings. This is an awareness talk about regulatory friction, not a technical security presentation.