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DNS Inventor Paul Mockapetris Sets Sights on Cybersecurity
December 2015 by Marc Jacob
ThreatSTOP, the company that makes threat
intelligence actionable in real time, announced Paul Mockapetris, inventor of
the Internet Domain Name System (DNS), has joined the company as its Chief
Scientist. Mockapetris is a world-renowned expert and visionary in the international
computer science community, with more than 30 years’ experience in consistently
developing landmark Internet technologies. In this newly created role, Mockapetris
will provide guidance to the ongoing product innovation process, and lead research
into DNS-based security.
The DNS was introduced during the transition from the ARPAnet to the IP/TCP based
Internet, and was the largest single architectural innovation of that transition. As
a critical infrastructure, DNS has been subjected to many attacks and misuse, but in
today’s hardened form, it is seen as an essential tool for implementing security.
ThreatSTOP delivers a highly scalable defense against advanced attacks by leveraging
the power of DNS to protect against any malware for every device across a network.
More than 500 companies trust ThreatSTOP to protect their networks today. The
ThreatSTOP service enables firewalls and/or DNS servers to deflect inbound attacks,
and prevents infected hosts from communicating with threat actors to corrupt or
extract data. The service is cloud-based, updates automatically and integrates with
leading firewalls and DNS servers.
Prior to joining ThreatSTOP, Mockapetris has held leadership roles at high-profile
technology companies including @Home, Software.com, and Fiberlane (split into Cerent
and Siara). He currently serves as a board member for Nominum and Farsight Security,
two other leaders in DNS-based security. Mockapetris also served as chairman of the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), program manager at ARPA, and chair of
ICANN’s Strategy Panel on Identifier Technology Innovation.
Throughout his career, Mockapetris has contributed to the computing research
community and the evolution of the Internet. His earliest work at the University of
California, Irvine (UCI) on distributed systems and local area network technology
preceded the commercial Ethernet and Token Ring designs. At ISI, after working on
the design and initial implementation of the SMTP protocol for email as part of the
birth of the Internet in 1983, he took on the challenge of designing DNS, and then
operated the original “root servers” for all Internet names. Subsequent to
creating DNS at USC’s ISI, Mockapetris later served as the Director of ISI’s
High Performance Computing and Communications Division.
Mockapetris earned his bachelor’s degrees in physics and electrical engineering from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his doctorate in Information and
Computer Science from UCI. Mockapetris is a frequent speaker and the recipient of
numerous awards including induction into the inaugural Internet Society’s Internet
Hall of Fame in 2012. He was also an initial investor in ThreatSTOP, and
participated in its most recent Series B round of funding.
