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Candidate finale
Marita Moll

Marita Moll

Liste: Membre
Province: Ontario

Curriculum vitae Énoncé vidéo

Énoncé de candidature

 

Elbows up! CIRA needs to ramp up activities addressing digital resilience. These could include exploring opportunities to transition from American to Canadian service providers (as noted in the Feb. 2025 Board minutes), prioritizing projects that address digital resilience in the Net Good program, maintaining and expanding the Canadian Traceroot Database (CTRD) to assist Canadians in mapping their data flow while revealing exposure to US based surveillance and dependence on American services. Prominently highlighting projects and products designed to improve digital resilience is a sure way to accelerate .ca growth at a time when Canadians are looking for this kind of leadership.

CIRA also needs to be more accessible and responsive to members. At ICANN, the Board actively seeks input from the community at every public meeting. These public fora are a normal part of the multistakeholder process at ICANN. It is time that every CIRA Board meeting include a virtual session where members can speak directly to the Board about their issues and concerns.

My name is Marita Moll. I have been a CIRA member for more than 15 years. I have served on the CIRA board (2015-2018) and have held leadership positions in the ICANN enduser community (At Large Advisory Council). I am a member of the Canadian Internet Governance Forum steering committee, and, through my work with Telecommunities Canada, have contributed community input to various national and international WSIS+20 documents. I have the background, knowledge and experience to be a productive member of the CIRA Board.

CIRA is a Canadian not-for-profit corporation which manages the .ca domain space on behalf of all Canadians. As a trusted resource that helps keep Canadians safe on the Internet, CIRA offers numerous services and products: cybersecurity services which protect many organizations and individuals (Canadian Shield) from cyberattacks like ransomware, malware, botnets, and others, Internet performance tests that allow Canadians to measure their Internet speeds and the Canadian TraceRoute database which provides information about dataflows. $1M in grants to community-led Internet projects are distributed each year. Helping local organizations establish IXP’s (Internet Exchange Points) also helps keep Canadian Internet traffic in Canada.

CIRA is also an active member of ICANN’s (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and the ccNSO (country code name supporting organization) stakeholder constituency. In this space, it works with other country code operators in setting guidelines and standards and cooperates with ICANN to resolve technical issues of common interest to ensure security, stability and interoperability of the Internet. Here, CIRA also engages directly with other actors in ICANN’s multistakeholder model and has played a leadership role in the technical community’s response to current WSIS+20 and other discussions.

In the original agreement between CIRA, UBC and the Government of Canada, the .ca domain was to be developed as “a key public resource for the social and economic development for all Canadians.” With the Internet now playing such an essential role in all our lives, CIRA and the services it is developing are more important than more than ever.

I served on the CIRA Board 2015-2018 where I represented member interests to the best of my ability. I have been an advocate for Canadian community and enduser interests for many years and serving on the CIRA board is a natural continuation of that work.

Since 2018, I have been active in the At Large community at ICANN. I have acquired a high level of experience and sensitivity to Internet governance issues at the international level and to the issues and concerns of the domain name industry. I have been the North American representative on the ICANN At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) which speaks to the interests of individual internet users who may not own domain names or work in the industry. I have been the ALAC lead on one of ICANN’s strategic goals — the evolution of ICANN’s multistakeholder model of governance. As an active member of the At Large Operations, Finance and Budget committee, I contributed to strategic goal setting and comments on finance and budget matters.

In 2025, I have new experiences and new insights to contribute as a CIRA Board member and a high level of awareness of the changing economic and political landscape nationally and internationally.

1. Navigating the rapidly evolving national and international economic and political changes

— Respond to current geopolitical instability by prioritizing projects and programs that address the need to bring Canadian data and infrastructure back under Canadian jurisdiction, authority and control.

— Support and participate in any national discussions on digital policy, especially AI adoption and digital infrastructure.

My continuing work at the international level at ICANN gives me a good perspective on international developments in the internet governance ecosystem.

2. Changing conditions in security environment due to AI and other technological advancements

— Evolve the products that assist Canadian organizations, the MUSH sector and small businesses to evaluate their security status and to protect themselves from cyberattacks.

— Continue to develop tools like the Canadian shield that help individual Canadian Internet users to protect themselves from phishing, malware, botnet and other attacks.

— Take a leadership role in promoting an ecosystem that protects digital sovereignty and minimizes interference by extraterritorial actors

I have a good understanding of DNS abuse issues, due to may engagement on this issue in the At Large community at ICANN — which has taken a leadership role in making ICANN more responsive to this issue.

3. Growing market share as the domain name market flattens

— continue to expand partnerships on Hello registry platform and evolve products that conform to CIRA’s mission.

— leverage the desire for Canadians to regain control over their digital lives and show national pride through association with .ca brand

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