guerrilla.net?

[geer at world.std.com (Dan Geer)]

Folks,

This is Dan Geer.  I'm CTO of @stake and have known some of
you for fifteen years all the way back to MIT Athena.  I've
been on the road a lot lately, so this ought to have been
written sooner and would have been were I caught up on mail
more often.

Guerrilla.net was, once upon a time, part of L0PHT Heavy
Industries, but was separated from the latter at the end
of 1999.  In December of that year some, but not all, of
the assets of LHI was bought by a new venture which appeared
on 6 January 2000, viz., @Stake.  Some, but by no means all,
of the people who'd been employed by LHI came over to @Stake.
I myself joined on 3 January.  What assets were bought and
what assets were not was a business decision like any other,
made largely by our venture backers at the very get-go. The
guerrilla.net was not acquired and it went its own way, details
of which I actually do not have mostly because I don't know
much of anything about wasn't bought.

And as with any business, and especially a baby one in early
2000, getting noticed in a deluge of hyped press releases was
both a priority and a challenge.  As you can tell from various
archives, our then head of marketing decided to play, as one
of you said, the hackers go legit angle.  We really did get
fantastic amouns of press attention though had I myself been
in charge of press we'd have been quieter -- which probably
demonstrates that marketing is absolutely not my forte.

As of today, @Stake is doing well in an environment in which
competitors large and small are dying in public.  Most, but
not all, of the original LHI personnel are with us still and
they form the majority of our internal R&D operation.  We are
more risk management than technical security which, in an era
where showing return on investment is a requirement in the 
selling process, turns out to be a very good thing.  Along 
those lines, handles have been dropped, e.g., it is "Pieter
Zatko" rather than "Mudge" these days.  How it is that
guerrilla.net still is DNS related to l0pht.com is surely an
oversight, a bit of laziness, or both.

And if this ain't enough, fire away with questions.  For those
who attend BBLISA, see you October 10th.

Regards,

--dan


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
formalities:    Daniel E. Geer, Jr., Sc.D.
                Chief Technology Officer
                @Stake, Inc.

                corp    196 Broadway
                        Cambridge, Mass. 02139
                        Telephone: +1 617 621 3500
                        Direct-in: +1 617 768 2723
                        Facsimile: +1 617 621 1738

                self    P.O. Box 244
                        Cambridge, Mass. 02139
                        Telephone: +1 617 492 6814

                also    President
                        USENIX Association
                        2560 Ninth Street, Suite 215
                        Berkeley, California 94710

                business email:  geer at atstake.com
                other email:     geer at world.std.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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