Chicago's Bright Lights Shine on BU Law Alumni Safeguarding ...

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PROTECTING the Cyber Social Scene > Hemanshu Nigam (’90) is Keeping Watch Over MySpace It’s no secret we’re living in a digital world. With over 185 million registered users and a current ranking as the most visited Web site on the Internet, MySpace is far and away the largest global online community on the planet. BU Law alumnus Hemanshu Nigam (’90) has the responsibility of making this Internet world a safe one. “When something explodes the way MySpace has, whatever happens in the real world will eventually happen in the online one,” Nigam says. “Our responsibility is to find a way to make that world as secure as the one we walk around in.” Appointed chief security officer in 2006 of MySpace.com, Nigam heads a 200 person task force that oversees safety, education and privacy programs for the Web site, and also handles all law enforcement affairs. And the duty of safeguarding young users is no simple task, considering the sheer size of MySpace. “There’s no precedent for policing the Internet; we’re building one,” admits Nigam. Nigam came to the position with years of experience protecting minors from exploitation and abuse, not only in the virtual world, but also in the physical one. From his first internship with Boston’s District Attorney’s Office where he was assigned to the special case unit, handling rape cases, Nigam realized his future would involve helping those most in need. “It was touching, empowering. All I could think was that this is exactly the kind of work I want to be doing,” said Nigam. “Now, I get to come to work everyday and feel that I’m doing exactly the right thing.” Cutting his teeth in Los Angeles County as a prosecutor who busted gangs and sexual predators, Nigam also worked as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., specializing in child-pornography, childpredator and child-trafficking cases. One of the first to focus on Internet cases, Nigam had a front row seat on how society was adapting to the growing cyber world. “Technology was changing at lightning speed but the government could move only so fast, and so it was an interesting dichotomy to experience,” said Nigam. “I realized I wanted to focus on Internet and child crime cases, to show people that the world we live in now may be a different one, but the worries and lessons are exactly the same.” 16 | The Record | Fall 2007
LECTURES Nigam is eager to talk about those lessons. After joining Microsoft in 2002 to lead many of the company’s child safety and security efforts, Nigam was more focused than ever on educating youth who have come of age in the Internet world. He is a strong advocate of legislation that would require all young people to take an “Online Etiquette and Safety” class in their schools, as the state of Virginia now requires its students to do. “We have to make sure our legal system grows with technology,” Nigam points out. In the past nine months alone, Nigam and his team have employed over 75 new security measures, including partnering with Sentinel Tech to create a program that will identify and delete profiles of registered sex offenders that are currently on the Web site. Another recent step towards protecting young users is making all profiles of members under the age of 16 private so that they cannot be contacted by people they don’t already know or potential predators. “This is the real world now,” says Nigam, who is quick to point out where his commitment to policing the world began. “During my time at BU Law, and particularly working in the Criminal Clinic, I was shown a strong focus on “real world” issues. We learned common sense dealing with real cases. That’s more important than anything else.” Nigam recalls Professor Bill Ryckman as one of the toughest professors he encountered. “One thing he did was present you with a case, but he would give you only parts of the case to read. There would be a scurry by the students to find all the information,” Nigam said. “Instead of just thinking about what the facts were for this particular case, Professor Ryckman wanted you to think about the larger question: how does this case affect our society” Nigam, if anyone, understands where the facts fall in today’s society. “More than ever people want to know what’s going on in the world. When I was younger, we had pen pals. Nowadays you have MySpace. It’s an instantaneous world of connection, and we want to give people all the tools possible to help them navigate it.” Edward Lane-Reticker Speaker Series In November 2006, Lewis B. Kaden, vice chairman and chief administrative officer of Citigroup, presented a lecture entitled “Rethinking Corporate Governance and Controls” as part of the Edward Lane-Reticker Speaker Series, which is sponsored by the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law. The series was established to bring together prominent personalities in banking, finance and public policy to debate and discuss timely topics in these fields. Leading figures in government, politics and law are invited to deliver lectures, and their presentations are published in the Annual Review of Banking and Financial Law. The October 2007 Edward Lane-Reticker Speaker series lecturer will be Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. See www.bu.edu/ law/events for more details. Lansing Crane (’70), Chairman and CEO, Crane Paper Co. In January 2007, Lansing Crane, chief executive officer of Crane & Company, spoke about careers for lawyers and about his company. A 200+ year old family-owned and run company, Crane & Co. produces the paper on which U.S. currency is printed and has been a leader in developing paper-based counterfeit deterrents such as advanced security threads, watermarks, planchettes and security fibers. Annual Max M. Shapiro Lecture The annual Shapiro Lecture was delivered by Samantha Power, whose book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. Her lecture was entitled “Human Rights After the Fall of the Superpower.” William Groner (’80), “The Hazardous Impact of Cleaning Up After September 11—Who Is At Fault” William Groner, senior partner, Worby Groner Edelman LLP, discussed the lawsuit filed against the City of New York and over 150 contractors hired to clean up Ground Zero post-9/11. The suit involves over 9,000 rescue workers who had catastrophic health effects from the cleanup. For more information on BU Law’s upcoming lectures, conferences and events, visit www.bu.edu/law/events/ Fall 2007 | The Record | 17
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