Company

We act as trusted advisors who help organizations better understand and minimize overall risk across IT assets, so they can focus on what's important - their core business.

Meet Our Team

Our team members come from a wide range of backgrounds and specialties. Previous employers include Symantec, McAfee, MIT Lincoln Labs, Sun Microsystems, Dell, IBM, Cisco, Morgan Stanley, Citi, National Instruments and PricewaterhouseCoopers. All consultants come from a computer science, engineering, or information systems discipline and many consultants have obtained masters and doctorates. Our team members include published authors, open source developers, industry researchers, and conference presenters.

Nathan Sportsman

Nathan Sportsman, Founder and Chief Executive OfficerNathan has extensive experience in information security and is a respected resource within the security community. Over the years, he has worked across most industry sectors and clients have ranged from Wall St and Silicon Valley to government intelligence agencies and renowned educational institutions. Consulting experience includes notable clients such as Toyota, Dell, Home Depot, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MGM, Delta Dental, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, NASDAQ, MetLife, Blue Cross Blue Shield, NSA, State of Texas, and MIT Lincoln Labs.

Nathan is a contributing author to the 6th & 7th Editions of the best selling book Hacking Exposed, a contributing developer for OWASP's JbroFuzz project, and a NIST individual contributor for emerging standards. He is a frequent public speaker and has lectured on the latest hacking techniques for the National Security Agency, served as an instructor for the Ultimate Hacking Series at Black Hat, and is a regular speaker for various security organizations such as ISSA, Infragard, and OWASP.

Nathan began his career at Sun Microsystems as a Solaris developer where he performed development work in user and kernel space for Solaris 9 & 10. During his time at Sun he earned a patent, Issue No. 7444268, for his work in fault management and was also a contributor to the Solaris Security Toolkit (SST), a free tool for hardening and auditing Solaris Operating Systems. Upon leaving Sun, Nathan transitioned to a consulting role and joined Symantec as a Principal Security Consultant. While at Symantec, he acted as a resident technical advisor for high visibility clients and worked closely with various Symantec product teams in evaluating and fixing vulnerabilities within their software. He left Symantec to join Foundstone's professional consulting services. During his time at Foundstone he operated within the penetration testing, software security, and training service lines.

Nathan holds a BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

Expand/collapseRead more [Expand/Collapse]

Ryan W. Smith

Ryan W. Smith, VP ProductsAt Praetorian, Ryan's current focus is on the development of technology and systems in support of computer network defense, attack, and exploitation. Prior to joining Praetorian, Ryan was an Associate Staff member of the Information Systems Technology Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His previous work at Lincoln Labs was in the code analysis group, in which he focused on the development of a prototype tool to automate the malware analysis process using information flow and virtual machine introspection. Prior to Lincoln Laboratory, Ryan worked at 21st Century Technologies and Applied Research Labs in Austin, TX, and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas, TX. Previous work has included graph-based network attack correlation, steganography, netflow traffic analysis, vulnerability and risk analysis, and identity management.

Ryan was an active member of the Honeynet Project from 2002 - 2008, in which he participated in the testing and development of various honeynet technologies, and was invited to give several talks on the usefulness of honeynets for strengthening network security as well as research.

While at the University of Texas, Ryan was the head of the local information security group on campus, and the organizer of the local cyber "capture the flag" exercise. As a result of this position, he was invited to a NFS funded workshop to determine the efficacy of a National Collegiate Cyber Defense Exercise, and subsequently assisted in the organization of the inaugural Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, which now hosts over 50 Universities in 8 regional qualifiers and a finalist round in San Antonio. While at the University of Texas, Ryan also led a team of graduate students to design and implement a prototype of an automated polymorphic shellcode analyzer to extract the system calls and parameters of arbitrarily obfuscated Windows shellcode.

Industry designations include the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). Ryan received a B.S in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas in Austin, where he focused on information assurance and network communications. Ryan received a M.S. in Security informatics from Johns Hopkins, where he focused on network and systems security as well as privacy and technical public policy.

Expand/collapseRead more [Expand/Collapse]

Josh Abraham

Josh Abraham, Director of ServicesAt Praetorian, Josh is a key member of the technical execution team. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading, directing and executing client-facing engagements that include Praetorian's tactical and strategic service offerings.

Prior to joining Praetorian, Josh spent six years at Rapid7 where he assisted in creating the firms methodologies, training new employees, and building the security practice for the company's cyber security services division. At Rapid7, Josh's activities also included penetration testing, software assurance, and custom code development. In addition to Rapid7, Josh has worked at the Hasbro Corporation as an enterprise risk assessment analyst.

Over the years, Josh has become a well-known resource for his contributions to the information security space. An avid researcher and presenter, Josh has spoken at numerous conferences including BlackHat, DefCon, ShmooCon, The SANS Pentest Summit, Infosec World, SOURCE Barcelona, CSI, OWASP, LinuxWorld, Comdex, and BLUG.

In his spare time, Josh is a contributing developer to numerous open source security projects such as the BackTrack LiveCD, BeEF, Nikto, Fierce, Metasploit, GISKismet, and PBNJ. Josh is also a respected security resource to the media and has been quoted by news outlets such as ComputerWorld, DarkReading, and SC Magazine.

Josh holds a BS in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Expand/collapseRead more [Expand/Collapse]

Paul West Jauregui

Paul West Jauregui, VP MarketingPaul oversees the planning, development, and execution of Praetorian's marketing and advertising activities. He is responsible for leading Praetorian's overall marketing efforts, including brand management, advertising, market research, corporate communications and public relations. In his role, he drives initiatives that support the company's accelerated growth grounded in providing services, research, and products that make the world a better, safer, and more secure place.

Before joining Praetorian, Paul served as creative director for Myover Inc., where he was responsible for overseeing multi-disciplinary teams in the development and production of creative marketing solutions that generated results for clients. His creative work, in online marketing and advertising, has been showcased in BusinessWeek and has earned him numerous state and national awards.

Paul earned his Masters in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing, from St. Edward's University and his Bachelors of Science in Communications at the University of Texas, Austin. He is an active member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).

Expand/collapseRead more [Expand/Collapse]

Matt Starolis

Matthew Starolis, Director of SalesMatt is responsible for driving Praetorian's strategic growth and rapid expansion of the client base, partnerships, and revenue. Prior to joining Praetorian, Matt spent five years at National Instruments as a District Sales Manager covering Northern California's Silicon Valley area. His client accounts ranged from Fortune 500 companies to startups in the energy, semiconductor, and medical device sectors. Key accounts included Lockheed Martin, NASA-Ames Research Center, Space Systems/Loral, and BAE.

Over the years, Matt has long been recognized for his dedication to customer service and focus on value-based, lasting relationships. As a member of NI's exclusive Circle of Excellence, he was a finalist for Rookie Salesperson of the Year, a winner of the peer-nominated Team Spirit Award, and was the keynote speaker at NI's Global Sales Conference.

Matt earned a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin where he was a College Scholar and worked closely with distinguished professor and computer architect, Dr. Yale Patt. While at UT-Austin, his primary focus centered on computer design and system software.

Matt also has professional backgrounds in finance and entrepreneurship.

Expand/collapseRead more [Expand/Collapse]

Sachin Patel

Sachin Patel, Director of Business DevelopmentSachin is responsible for driving the growth of Praetorian through business development initiatives, targeted partner relationships, and recurring revenue models.

Prior to joining Praetorian, Sachin was a Vice President with Citi Global Investment Banking in Los Angeles where he advised clients on nine and ten figure IPO and M&A transactions across various industry sectors. Before completing his MBA, Sachin worked at IBM and Cisco Systems in engineering capacities with a focus on clients in the technology, government, and pharmaceutical verticals.

Sachin holds a BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a focus on Entrepreneurship and Finance. While at UCLA, he also served as President of the Anderson Student Association.