June 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

Spotlight

Digging deep into network alerts

Ben Uphoff, Packet Analytic's vice president of research.

When Los Alamos National Bank sought to consolidate the entirety of its network security information in one place and efficiently analyze so-called "network events," it turned to Packet Analytics Corporation.

According to Ben Uphoff, Packet Analytic's vice president of research, "If a computer on the network is compromised, a security analyst can use our software to determine the scope and extent of the incident, possibly going back through years of data."

Uphoff created the software at the Laboratory initially for network forensics and incident response. Now on entrepreneurial leave, he serves as the Santa Fe-based company's lead software architect.

After completing his master's degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001, Uphoff joined the Laboratory as a technical staff member in the Network Engineering group. While working as a network security analyst and software developer, he earned his doctorate in computer science from Iowa State University in 2006.

"Since writing this software for the Lab, I have had a strong desire to get it to market," he said. "It's really rewarding to speak with potential customers who see our software as a solution to their problems."

According to Belinda Padilla of the Technology Transfer Division, Packet Analytics recently completed its Venture Acceleration Fund milestones. Sponsored by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the fund provides investments of up to $100,000 in Northern New Mexico startups to create jobs, attract additional investment, and enable startups to reach large markets faster.

Once off the ground, Uphoff said the company hopes to relocate from Santa Fe, possibly to Albuquerque where a larger pool of software developers exists. Uphoff said he would like to see Packet Analytics be a success and then have a hand in seeing more Laboratory technology move into the commercial market place.

"Just in our group alone, there were numerous amazing technologies that my colleagues have developed," he said. "I would love to see some of that technology follow the same path that we have."

—Mig Owens