• A professional with 15 years experience, proficient in numerous technology areas: Networking (wireless and wireline), Operating Systems, Information Security, Embedded Systems, Software Integration, System Architecture, Modeling and Simulation, Military Datalinks, Military Rotorwing Platforms.
• Project leader with experience directing product development teams of up to 8 people.
• Project manager with experience determining budgets, setting and following schedules, and presenting status, design, & technology reviews.
• Technical writer with papers published in academic and industry realms; inventor with nine United States patents.

• Lead Engineer for efforts to bring Net-Centric (Internet Architecture) capabilities to military vehicles, with a focus on Converged Voice, Video, and Data Services running in embedded, ruggedized environment with limited computing and communication resources.
• Networking Subject Matter Expert, leading a networking center of competency, providing review formal and informal solution reviews, advice, troublehooting, and education to the corporation.

• Leadership
  • Net-Centric R&D projects
    • Network Architect for R&D efforts in pursuit of Joint Multi-Rotor (JMR) and Future Verticle Lift (FVL) helicopter programs, identifying high-risk requirements and defining apprpriate risk-reducing tasks.
    • Lead Engineer for development of Network Appliance capable of supporting Converged Voice, Video, and Data Services in a embedded processor for military helicopters.
    • Principal Investigator of a research & development effort to create a militarized product that brings Net-Centric (Internet Architecture) capabilities to military vehicles, with a focus on machine-to-machine interaction.
    • Previously Lead Engineer, directing day-to-day development tasks, providing technology guidance, and performing overall system and software design.
  • Computer Emergency Response Team
    • Lead small staff of junior employees (2-5 people) in incident handling responsibilities, while working along side staff of 2-4 senior analysts.
    • Developed first- and second-line incident treatment (handling) procedures for junior staff.
    • Co-developed third-line in-depth investigation procedures for senior staff.
    • Co-developed virtual 24/7 incident monitoring (via pagers, PDAs, and VPNs for off-hours coverage).
    • Instantiated corporate policies as correlated signatures/rules and in auditing software to expedite and maintain policy compliance efforts.
• System Design and Architecture
  • Net-centric Technology Domain Expert, instigating the transition of Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Service technologies into the embedded military platforms (Helicopters, Fixed-wing Aircraft, and Wheeled Vehicles).
  • Lead System Engineer and Architect for seedling contract to bring collaborative mission execution capabilities for heterogeneous manned/unmanned vehicle teams to Navy ships. In conjunction with subject matter experts, developing design documents to record overall system composition and operational context and capabilities.
  • Wrote numerous software tools in support of the DoDAF System Architecture definition for an advanced semi-autonomous combat-capable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for DARPA and the U.S. Army.
    • Database-driven,
    • Integrated dynamic simulations demonstrating the behaviours and operations of the system,
    • Integrated visualization of the architecture for both system engineers and the customer, and
    • Tools to enable further architecture definition in a highly collaborative manner (>30 system engineers in at least 5 locations).
  • Designed and developed sophisticated correlation rules with Intellitactics' Network Security Manager software for use in a multi-customer, highly automated Intrusion Detection and Monitoring environment.
    • Lead the incorporation of log/event data from firewalls, routers, web and ftp servers, NIDS, vulnerability scanners, and external data sources (e.g. incidents.org) into a single correlation and analysis engine;
    • Lowered the daily average number of incidents from ~100 to ~20 without filtering out actual incidents in need of investigation (true positives);
    • Increased the number of exploit signatures the system is able to detect;
    • Decreased average response time from half a day to 30 minutes by incorporating dynamic and static data (e.g. system and network contacts, and VPN log in user ids).
    • Developed custom Java operators tailored to proprietary needs.
    • Co-developed security event database (currently approximately 400,000 events per week).
• Research & Development
  • Rotorcraft Satellite Communications Network Engineer
    • Supported test flights of a Converged Network appliance product & KA-Band SATCOM system on H-3 helicopter.
    • Developed multi-datalink (Line of Sight and Beyond Line of Site) solution for K-Max unmanned cargo helicopter system.
    • Upgraded and validated network infrastructure for two different Intelligence, Reconaissance, and Surveillence aircraft systems (Navy P-3 and Coast Guard Deepwater MRS) as part of planned product upgrades, incuding modernization of software architecture with standards-based discovery, pub/sub, and other communication patterns.
    • Led development of a Secure Satellite Communications Testbed, an R&D network designed to enable validation, development, integration, and testing of Net-centric applications intended for use on Military Helicopters and other vehicles.
      • Composed of several real and simulated satcom links (L-band, Ku-band, and Ka-band), military grade encryption, and several types of protocol acceleration, in addition to representative Air and Ground Segment mission systems, and various protocol analyzers and load generators (including Spirent Testcenter).
      • Used to identify networking problems early in development cycle, when cost to correct is relatively low, before integration onto aircraft and before incurring cost of satellite time usage.
  • Global Information Grid (GIG) Lead Engineer then Principal Investigator
    • Shepherding development of a new product for net-centric (Internet technology-based) rapid avionics (aviation electronics) integration
    • Worked as lead engineer, overseeing requirements development, initial system architecture, operational context, and supporting business case development.
    • Also lead initial prototype development effort, overseeing several junior engineers in software development work.
    • Worked as Principal Investigator, overseeing entire development effort, owning budgets, maintaining schedule, and providing status.
    • First Service-oriented product within the company, using Java, SOAP, J2EE and OSGi in a highly-embedded PowerPC computing platform.
  • Link-16 Systems Engineer
    • Developed software library to allow host processors to interface with third-party MIDS terminal controlling software.
    • Also assisted in fact finding and "corporate self-education" of Link 16 concepts.
    • Developed cross-platform interface C/C++ code runnable on: Linux, Solaris, Windows (via cygwin), and embedded system (PowerPC-based Lockheed Martin SP103B running VxWorks).
    • Overcame endian issues and problem of interfacing C/C++ code with ADA.
    • Assisted in development of Link 16 concept in "Hunter Killer Standoff Tactics" (HSKT) scenario for military attack helicopters and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
  • Lead programmer for Battlefield Ministration Tracking System prototype, a multi-wireless mobile computer solution for the U.S.Army in 1999, including issues in application design for:
    • Wireless/mobile computing interfaces;
    • Disconnected operation/data delivery and integrity;
    • Wireless security;
    • Smart card programming and interfacing.
  • Principal Investigator of telematics R&D: Wireless, GPS, Voice-actuation, Mobile computing, Geographic Information Service
  • Key technical personnel on PKI proposal (RSA, PKI, X.509 certificate, encryption, digital signature).
  • Miscellaneous
    • Provide Linux consulting expertise.
    • Responsible for Wireless Portal, IPv6, MobileIP, and Information Security R&D tasks. (XML, WML, HTML, IPSec, etc.)
    • Designed Local and Wide Area Networks for shop-floor, enterprise and educational uses
    • Supported Voice Synthesis and Recognition R&D (sphinx2, festival, vocabulary, corpus) and contract.
    • Assisted DoD-classified labs in meeting system audit-ability requirements in an automated, repeatable manner.
    • Provided analysis of various vendor's Link 16 Middleware offerings, providing insight of system integration risks due to middleware API and data formats.
    • Assisted integration of interface code into existing ADA embedded executable used on military helicopter systems (designing and debugging, packet captures and memory dumps).
    • Designed initial digital stamp solution for "e-stamp" proposal given to UK Royal Mail. (System processed one millionth piece of mail in May, 2004.)

~/bin a blog about shell scripts and other hacks (http://jdimpson.livejournal.com)

Academic papers and presentations

• Towards Zero-Day Attack Detection through Intelligent Icon Visualization of MDL Model Proximity, a poster presented at VizSec 2008 Workshop on Visualization for Cyber Security, in conjunction with RAID 2008. (Cambridge, MA USA, September 15, 2008.)
• MDLCompress for Intrusion Detection: Signature Inference and Masquerade Identification, presented at Military Communications International Symposium MILCOM 2007. (Orlando, FL, October 29, 2007)
• Network Data Routing in Dynamic Environments of Potentially Mobile Nodes, presented at and published in the proceedings of SPIE AeroSense 2002.
• Proof-of-concept Prototype of a Portable Wireless Battlefield Ministration Tracking System, presented at Military Communications International Symposium MILCOM 2001. (Tyson's Corner, VA, October 31, 2001)
• Principals and Practice of Modern Information Security presented at ACM 8th Foundations of Software Engineering Symposium (Nov 6 2000), and at the Military Communications Symposium MILCOM2001 (Tyson's Corner, VA, Oct 31 2001).
  • Topics: Secure Software development, Networking, Firewalls, Crypto, PKI, Security Tokens, VPN, Authentication, Intrusion Detection.
• A State-of-the-Art Environment for Research, Design, Evaluation, Prototyping, and Integration of Dual-Use Advanced Networking and Network-Centric Information Technologies presented at Military Communications International Symposium MILCOM1999 (Atlantic City, NJ, Nov 3 1999).
• Portable Wireless Battlefield Ministrations Tracking and Information System presented at Military Communications International Symposium MILCOM1999 (Atlantic City, NJ, Nov 3 1999)

Secure Enterprise Magazine (freelance writer)

• Deployment Guide: Nose Around with Snort, September, 2005; an article about intrusion detection
• Deployment Guide: Prescient PDA Protection, March, 2005; an article about mobile security
• Deployment Guide: Secure Shell, August, 2004; an article about secure remote access
• Data Scrubbing: Keeping Your Data Squeaky Clean, February, 2004; an article about securing untrusted data
• chroot() Deployment Guide: Jail Time, October 21, 2003; an article about securing services

Network Computing Magazine (freelance writer)

• Modular Linux Authentication workshop, March 4, 2002
• Linux Power Tuning workshop, November 13, 2000
• AC200 review, June 1, 1998
• Xedia Access Point 10 review, May 1, 1998
• HP AdvanceStack 800T review, March 15, 1998
• NetSuite Professional Audit review, November 15, 1997
• NNTP News Server Evaluations, February 15, 1997

Linux Journal (freelance writer)

• Astaro Security Linux V4, July 2003
• Build a Virtual CD-ROM Jukebox, April 2002
• VNC, Transparently, January 2002
• VNC, Securely, January 2002 (online only)
• The Perl Debugger, May 1998

Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 1994 - 1998
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature.
Cumulative GPA: 3.798 (Magna Cum Laude)

Inventions

United States Patent #6,708,107 (USPTO link, Google link), Real-time ad hoc traffic alert distribution -- a way to make cars on the road be able to communicate among themselves using wireless communication in such a way that they can automatically detect the existence and location of a traffic jam, in hopes that at least some of them can find an alternate route around the jam.

United States Patent #6,804,602 (USPTO link, Google link), Incident-aware vehicular sensors for intelligent transportation systems -- A system and method for mobile platform real-time collection, transmission, and processing of an array of environmental and vehicle-related data in the context of an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) network.

United States Patent #7,415,613 (USPTO link, Google link), System and method for detecting alteration of objects -- A system and method for detecting if an object has been tampered with comprising a characterizer, a comparator, and indicator, and optionally, a signer.

United States Patent #7,720,458 (USPTO link, Google link), Rapidly deployable emergency communications system and method -- A system and method for rapid deployment of economically feasible wide-area general-purpose telecommunications systems and services in urban, suburban, rural, and other inhabited geographical areas.

United States Patent #7,809,673 (USPTO link, Google link), Methods and apparatus for interfacing external systems with vehicle electronic systems -- A system and apparatus providing access between external systems and embedded vehicle electronic systems. That is, an interface module may receive information from a system external to the vehicle, determine an embedded system of the vehicle to which to provide the information, and provide the information to the embedded system. Similarly, the interface module may receive information a embedded electronic systems of a vehicle, determine a system external the vehicle to which to provide the information, and provide the information to the external system.

United States Patent #8,041,477 (USPTO link, Google link), Methods and apparatus for providing access to vehicle electronic systems -- One embodiment is directed to providing access between external systems and embedded vehicle electronic systems. That is, an interface module may receive information from a system external to the vehicle, determine an embedded system of the vehicle to which to provide the information, and provide the information to the embedded system. Similarly, the interface module may receive information a embedded electronic systems of a vehicle, determine a system external the vehicle to which to provide the information, and provide the information to the external system.

United States Patent #8,214,102 (USPTO link, Google link), Methods and apparatus for providing access to vehicle electronic system -- (further refinement of patent #8,041,477)

United States Patent #8,245,301 (USPTO link, Google link), Network intrusion detection visualization -- Basically, take a form of data compression called Minimum Descriptive Length (MDL) and apply it to carefully prepared network packets. The resulting compressed data (and its compression table) can be used to classify the network traffic as good, bad, or unknown. The classification is performed by comparing the distance vector of the compressed data from grammars of previously seen network data. Includes a way to generate and update these grammars on the fly.

United States Patent #8,245,302 (USPTO link, Google link), Network intrusion detection visualization and response through intelligent icons -- Take the distance vector from the previous patent and use it to create a visual icon, e.g. a three-by-three grid of pixels, with each pixel position representing a classification grammar, and the color of the pixel representing the distance the data in question is from fitting within that grammar. Thought to be useful in providing feedback to an operator on how good or bad some network data is when the system can't decide based on its pre-defined tolerances. Could lead to definition of more abstract tolerances.

United States Patent #8,312,542 (USPTO link, Google link), Network Intrusion Detection Using MDL Compress for Deep Packet Inspection -- Using a form of lossless compression to discover malicious payloads in network packets

United States Patent #8,327,443 (USPTO link, Google link), MDL Compress System and Method for Signature Inference and Masquerade Intrusion Detection -- How to build signatures (grammars) for use in detecting classes of data, plus applying the technique towards detecting bogus (masquerading) keystrokes on a computer terminal.

Other patents pending.