HBGary, Inc. today announced the spin-off of its U.S. government cybersecurity services group. The new company, known as HBGary Federal, will focus on delivering HBGary’s malware analysis and incident response products and expert classified services to the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and other U.S. government agencies…In addition, HBGary CEO and founder Greg Hoglund announced that cybersecurity experts and former Northrop Grumman employees and military veterans, Aaron Barr and Ted Vera, will operate and lead HBGary Federal. Mr. Barr will serve as CEO and Mr. Vera will serve as President and COO working in HBGary Federal’s Washington D.C. and Colorado Springs offices, respectively.
“As an early adopter of HBGary Digital DNA, the U.S. government understands that the bad guys not only exist but are already inside our mission critical systems. Under the expert leadership of Aaron and Ted, HBGary Federal will ensure the proper protection of our nation’s military, government and critical infrastructure systems, “ said Greg Hoglund, CEO and founder of HBGary. “HBGary will continue to focus on doing what we do best – developing commercial software to detect and analyze Zero-Day threats to provide active intelligence and serving our rapidly growing customer base.”
Mr. Barr and Mr. Vera are well-respected security experts in the government market, both having managed critical programs to national security in the past. They both agree that the time is right to launch HBGary Federal, leveraging the best malware and cybersecurity analysts with most promising malware detection and prevention products on the market to help the government counter the advanced persistent threat.
“Cyber warfare is becoming a much more utilized capability by our nation’s adversaries. Our government is in desperate need for advanced cybersecurity technologies utilized in the hands of trained experts. HBGary Federal will provide the subject matter experts trained to most effectively leverage these tools to satisfy mission requirements. Outdated security technologies such as signature-based malware detection tools are no longer viable to protect our nation’s critical resources. HBGary’s behavior-based technologies such as Responder and Digital DNA represent the future. Our goal is to provide the technology in the hands of trained experts that can help mitigate an attack before it occurs,” said Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal.
“I am very excited to work with Aaron to launch HBGary Federal. Greg and his team have developed a strong government customer base and it’s time to take the next step to build on their success. HBGary Federal, leveraging the HBGary product line and key partnerships, provides the expertise and the tools necessary for advanced analysis, malware reverse-engineering and incident response as well as mechanisms for building, distributing, and retaining that knowledge across the enterprise. As information operations transitions to a more net-centric environment there is a critical need for agile, forward-leaning teams with multi-disciplinary skills in native cultures, linguistics, creative design, and technology. HBGary Federal will set the standard for building and integrating such teams into customer missions for successful information operations campaigns,” said Ted Vera, President and COO of HBGary Federal.
For more information on HBGary Federal, please visit http://www.hbgary.com. You can also contact Mr. Barr at aaron@hbgary.com or Mr. Vera at ted@hbgary.com.
About Aaron Barr, CEO, HBGary Federal
Previously, Aaron Barr served as the Director of Technology for the Cybersecurity and SIGINT Business Unit within Northrop Grummans Intelligence Systems Division, and as the Chief Engineer for Northrop Grummans’s Cyber Campaign. As Technical Director, he was responsible for developing technical strategies and roadmaps for a $750 million organization as well as managing approximately $20 million in Research and Development projects. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Mr. Barr served 12 years in the United States Navy as an enlisted cryptologist, senior signals analyst, software programmer, and system administrator. Mr. Barr served tours in Misawa, Japan, Norfolk Virginia, Pensacola Florida, and Rota Spain. While serving in Norfolk Virginia, he was accepted into the Enlisted Education Advancement Program (EEAP) where he finished a Bachellors of Science in Biology, minoring in Chemistry, later completing a Masters in Computer Science with an emphasis in Computer Security. He has been a panelist and given speeches on cybersecurity and emerging technologies at numerous Intelligence Community and DoD conferences and symposiums.
About Ted Vera, COO and President, HBGary Federal
Prior to joining HBGary Federal, Ted Vera led the Netcentric Information Operations Department for Northrop Grumman Information Systems. In this role, he managed over 40 personnel and was responsible for contracts valued over $25M. He has 20 years of Information Technology experience, with a proven track record of winning and executing U.S. Government contracts within the DoD and Intelligence Community. He has a breadth of IT experience, having excelled in positions including: system administrator, Website developer, system engineer, system security engineer and program manager. He has led development projects of all sizes, from small custom web applications to large enterprise systems-of-systems leveraging commercial-off-the-shelf architectures. Mr. Vera served ten years in the U.S. Army, starting in 1990 with the FL Army National Guard as a Field Artillery Fire Direction Specialist. His last duty assignment was as a shift NCO at the Army Space Operations Center at Army Space Command HQs, located in Colorado Springs, CO. During his tenure with Northrop Grumman, Mr. Vera consistently achieved extraordinary business results and received numerous prestigious customer and company awards including the 2002 NRO Operations Industrial Partner of the Year, and the 2008 TASC President’s Award. Mr. Vera holds security clearances with the DoD and Intelligence Community. Mr. Vera earned a BS in Computer Information Systems from Colorado Christian University and a MS in Computer Science from Colorado Technical University.
About HBGary, Inc.
HBGary, Inc. was founded in 2003 by renowned security expert Greg Hoglund. Mr. Hoglund and his team are internationally known experts in the field of Windows internals, software reverse engineering, bug identification, rootkit techniques and countermeasures. Today HBGary specializes in developing enterprise malware detection and analysis solutions and incident response tools that provide active intelligence for its customers. Customers include leading government, financial, and healthcare organizations. The company is headquartered in Sacramento with sales offices in the Washington D.C. area. HBGary is privately held. For more information on the company, please visit: http://www.hbgary.com.
For more information:
Karen Burke
650-814-3764
karenmaryburke@yahoo.com