Dan Geer leaves Verdasys for In-Q-Tel
Geer (left) will remain on the masthead at Verdasys as Chief Scientist Emeritus. At In-Q-Tel, he will report directly to CEO Chris Darby.
For In-Q-Tel, the hiring of Geer as CISO is significant on several fronts. It gives the company access to one of the foremost minds in risk management and information security and a highly-respected pundit to interface with the public.
Before Verdasys, Geer served as CTO of @stake before the infamous CyberInsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly report on the risks of standardizing on Microsoft Windows caused him to lose that job.
[ ALSO SEE: Dan Geer's essay on e-commerce and botnets ]
He also ran the development arm of MIT's Project Athena, where his staff pioneered Kerberos, the X Window System, and much of what we take for granted in distributed computing.
In-Q-Tel is a non-profit venture capital firm that invests in high-tech companies. It was created by the CIA to build a bridge between the Agency and a new set of technology innovators.
In-Q-Tel's mission is to discover, adapt, and deliver leading edge commercial technologies that can enable the CIA’s and the broader U.S. Intelligence Community's critical intelligence work.
The company invests in start-ups in five broad technology practice areas: Application Software and Analytics; Bio, Nano, and Chemical Technologies; Communications and Infrastructure; Digital Identity and Security; and Embedded Systems and Power.