About Lenny Zeltser

Here, I list some autobiographical facts and outline a several of my projects and accomplishments. After all, activity suggests a life filled with purpose.

Professional Background

I am a seasoned IT professional with a strong background in information security and business management. As a Director at Radiant Systems (now part of NCR Corporation), I focus on safeguarding IT operations of small and midsize businesses world-wide. Before Radiant, I led an enterprise security consulting team at a major IT hosting provider.

My most recent work has focused on malware defenses and cloud-based services. I teach how to analyze and combat malware at SANS Institute, where I am a senior faculty member. I also participate as a Board of Directors member at SANS Technology Institute and volunteer as an incident handler at the Internet Storm Center.

I frequently speak on security and related business topics at conferences and industry events, write articles, and have co-authored books on forensics, network security and malicious software. I am one of the few individuals who've earned the highly-regarded GIAC Security Expert (GSE) designation. I have an MBA degree from MIT Sloan and a Computer Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Publications

One of my most challenging and rewarding experiences was producing and co-authoring the book Inside Network Perimeter Security. I also contributed chapters to Malware: Fighting Malicious Code and CyberForensics. I also wrote articles for publications such as the Information Security magazine, and Campus Technology.

Many of my articles and papers are available throughout this website. I also write a daily information security blog and practicipate in discussions on Twitter.

Professional Certifications

In addition to holding the CISSP certification, have earned the GIAC Security Expert (GSE) designation. Earning GSE was a particularly challenging process, because it required obtaining several other subject-specific certifications as well as passing a 28-hour hands-on and written exam. In general, I find certifications useful motivators for keeping my skills current, as long as the cert's focus is in line with the real-world experience that I'm getting at the time.

Other Activities

I volunteer as an incident handler at SANS Internet Storm Center (ISC). ISC processes data from around the world, and acts as an early warning system for Internet-wide security problems. One of the handlers is on duty every day, analyzing data collected from automated sensors and messages that we receive from system administrators and computer users. The handler-on-duty publishes a diary of that day's events, to let our readers know about recent security trends and observations.

People I Know Who Have Websites

You are who you know, right? Or is it "you are what you eat"? In any case, here are links to several people's and organizations' sites, which I'd like to offer for your consideration:

Julia is a Principal and Creative Director at Hyperakt Design Group.
Villi is the founder and first violinist of the Ambassadors String Quartet.
Edward is a professional photographer.
Arkady is an amateur photographer.
Slava is a master of many trades.
Michael and his his team created this on-line store to simplify the licensing of IBM software.
SANS maintains the excellent Computer Forensics Blog, to which I periodically contribute.