On the Front Lines of Internet Security

Joshua L. Wright ‘97 sees computer hacking growing drastically in rate and sophistication. Going back 10 years or more, most computer break-ins were “done by small groups of disorganized teenagers and young adults motivated by personal curiosity or to raise their social standing among their peers. It was ‘Who can break into the most Web sites?’” says Wright (pictured here, left, with daughter Maya). Today, more organized attackers are financially or politically motivated.

A senior security analyst for InGuardians Inc., based in Washington, D.C., Wright also teaches and trains for SANS (Systems Administration, Auditing, Network Security) Institute out of Bethesda, Md., and works from his home as a consultant. He speaks at conferences, trains employees and has written books on Internet security and safeguards. His clients over the years have included Cisco Systems, Oracle, Apple and Microsoft.

Wright’s work includes helping secure large, publicly traded organizations, the government and U.S. critical infrastructure companies — any business that if threatened by terrorists, could negatively affect the U.S. economy, including utilities and communications networks.

He also does forensics. If a network is breached, InGuardians finds out what happened and how. “In some cases they hire us to break into their computer systems, and then show them how we did it and how they can prevent someone else from doing it in the future. ” The group also works with law enforcement to determine if hackers are part of an independent group or organized crime syndicate.

His work for employers may be of most interest. “We’re hired to break into a company’s system, in an authorized fashion, to find employees on MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and we find out everything we can about them. Then we use that information to try to compromise their email accounts and any other resources they have.” As Wright suggests, “You need to be cognizant about who you’re sharing your information with.”