InGuardians Team

“So, people hire you to break into their places to make sure no one can break into their places?” - Sneakers 1992
InGuardians, Inc. is an independent information security consulting company providing high-value services.  Our specialties include Red Team Penetration Testing, Hardware and  Application Security Assessments, Threat Hunting, Security Architecture Reviews, ICS and IIoT Security,  Kubernetes and Public Cloud Security, Incident Response, Custom Training, and more.

InGuardians strives to assemble the best and the brightest minds in information security.  Our aim is to channel the collective talents of our team in providing actionable business-focused information security consulting.

Established in 2003 by industry veterans, InGuardians brings technical experience and business acumen to your projects. Our information security professionals have authored tools, books, testing frameworks, and training programs.

Jimmy Alderson

Jimmy Alderson

Chief Product Officer & Chairman of the Board

Super Power: Rainmaker

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 Jimmy Alderson is a web application and data correlation expert. Jimmy conducts network architecture reviews and security audits. He is an author of the Syngress best seller Nessus Network Auditing. Jimmy joins InGuardians after working for ISS, Meta Security Group, and ESecurity Inc. Jimmy: “Been with InGuardians since inception. I’m the CEO, so I talk to a lot of technical champions inside numerous organizations. Occasionally I get up to shop myself. I work with Jay, who does Operations, and spend a lot of my time on the phone.”
Jay Beale

Jay Beale

Chief Executive Officer, CTO

Super Power: Command line Kung Fu

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Jay Beale is Chief Executive Officer and Principal Security Consultant for InGuardians. He works on Kubernetes, Linux and Cloud-Native security, both as a professional threat actor and an Open Source contributor. He’s the architect of the Peirates attack tool for Kubernetes and the Bustakube CTF Kubernetes cluster. He created Bastille Linux, a lockdown tool that introduced a vital security-training component, and the Center for Internet Security’s Linux scoring tool, both used by hundreds of thousands. Since 2000, he has led training classes on Linux & Kubernetes security at the Black Hat, RSA, CanSecWest and IDG conferences, as well as in private training.

Jay is a member of the Kubernetes project and previously co-led the project’s Security Audit Working Group. In the past, through Bastille Linux and his work with the Center for Internet Security, he provided leadership in the Linux system hardening space, participating in efforts to create and implement standards for Linux security within industry and government. He also served as a member of the Honeynet Project, Mitre’s OVAL Board, and the Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute at George Washington University.

As an author and series editor, Jay has contributed to nine books, including those in the “Jay Beale’s Open Source Security Series,” which included an international bestseller. As a speaker, Jay has given more than one hundred public talks and chaired two conferences.

Mike Poor

Mike Poor

Chief Information Security Officer

Super Power: I see dead packets

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Mike Poor, as one of the original founders, has been with InGuardians since its inception in 2003. As President, he primarily guides the vision of the company and acts as an insightful consigliere when the chips are down. As a Senior Security Analyst, he conducts large scale breach analysis for clients, tests new technology, and brings a thoughtful attack plan to any information security issue or incident. Mike has supported Intrusion Detection and Incident Response teams for the military, worked for Sourcefire as a research engineer, and served the SANS Institute by leading their Intrusion Analysis Team. He has also been leading and teaching the Intrusion Detection Track at the SANS Institute since 2001, is the author and editor of the international bestseller Snort 2.1, a technical book from Syngress, and acts as a Handler for the Internet Storm Center. Aside from his powerful security intelligence and overwhelming charisma, the team finds that his most useful superpower is his uncanny ability to get into any restaurant. The rest of the time, he enjoys fly fishing, mushroom hunting, sailing, and playing ukuleles.
Jaime Thornton

Jaime Thornton

Director of Sales

Super Power: Multitasking at the speed of light

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Jaime began her journey with InGuardians in 2011 as a Sales Associate and is presently the Director of Sales. Jaime spends her days working closely with multiple clients from a variety of industries around the world, overseeing each step of the InGuardians’ sales process. Jaime’s greatest strengths are her creativity, her exceptional writing skills, and her unique ability to skillfully listen and interpret information in order to assist clients with meeting their security assessment needs. Jaime received her BA from Wells College, and her MA from UAB. In addition to her unhealthy obsession with Monchhichis, Jaime has two unwavering convictions: 1) There’s nothing like a good penetration test. 2) David Bowie will always rock!
Rob CurtinSeufert

Rob CurtinSeufert

Director of Services

Super Power: Spatial-temporal reasoning

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Rob CurtinSeufert has spent years in and out of Bank and Credit Union networks. Rob has conducted network, wireless, and web application penetration tests against organizations ranging from 25 million to 10 billion in assets. He also works in incident response and social engineering, both on and off site. He once took over a county from his couch while still wearing his pajamas

Justin Searle

Justin Searle

Director of ICS Security

Super Power: “This Justin does not have Super Cow Powers…”

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Justin Searle is the Director of ICS Security at InGuardians, specializing in ICS security architecture design and penetration testing. Justin led the Smart Grid Security Architecture group in the creation of NIST Interagency Report 7628 and has played key roles in the Advanced Security Acceleration Project for the Smart Grid (ASAP-SG), National Electric Sector Cybersecurity Organization Resources (NESCOR), and Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). Justin has taught courses in hacking techniques, forensics, networking, and intrusion detection for multiple universities, corporations, and security conferences. Mr. Searle is currently a Senior Instructor for the SANS Institute. In addition to electric power industry conferences, Justin frequently presents at top international security conferences such as Black Hat, DEFCON, OWASP, Nullcon, and AusCERT. Justin co-leads prominent open source projects including the The Control Thing Platform, Samurai Web Testing Framework (SamuraiWTF), Samurai Security Testing Framework for Utilities (SamuraiSTFU), Yokoso!, and Laudanum. Justin has an MBA in International Technology and is a CISSP and SANS GIAC certified Incident Handler (GCIH), Intrusion Analyst (GCIA), Web Application Penetration Tester (GWAPT), and GIAC Industrial Control Security Professional (GICSP).