Dmitri Alperovitch

Dmitri Alperovitch (Russian: Дмитрий Михайлович Альперович; born 1980) is a Russian-born American computer security industry executive. He is co-founder and former chief technology officer of CrowdStrike. In August 2011, as vice president of threat research at McAfee, he published Operation Shady RAT, a report on suspected Chinese intrusions into at least 72 organizations, including defense contractors, businesses worldwide, the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee.[1] Alperovitch is a naturalized American citizen born in Russia who came to the United States in 1994 with his family.[2]

Dmitri Alperovitch
Alperovitch in 2017
Born1980
Alma materGeorgia Institute of Technology
OccupationCo-founder & former CTO, CrowdStrike Inc.
Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
VP, Threat Research, McAfee, Inc.
EmployerCrowdStrike, Inc.
Known forDemocratic National Committee cyber attacks,
Operation Aurora,
Operation Shady RAT
AwardsFortune 40 Under 40 (2017),
Politico 50 (2016),
TR35 (2013),
FP Top 100 Global Thinkers (2013)

Early life and education

Born in Moscow in the Russian S.F.S.R., a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Alperovitch is a U.S. citizen.[3] In 1994, his father was granted a visa to Canada, and a year later the family moved to Chattanooga.[4] Alperovitch earned a B.S. in computer science in 2001, and a M.S. in information security in 2003, both from Georgia Institute of Technology. It was the school's first graduate degree in information security.[5]

Career

Alperovitch worked at a number of computer security startups in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including e-mail security startup CipherTrust,[5] where he was one of the leading inventors of the TrustedSource reputation system.[6] Upon acquisition of CipherTrust by Secure Computing in 2006,[7] he led the research team and launched the Software-as-a-Service business for the company. Alperovitch took over as vice president of threat research[8] at McAfee, when the company acquired Secure Computing in 2008.[9]

In January 2010, he led the investigation into Operation Aurora, the Chinese intrusions into Google and two dozen other companies.[10] Subsequently, he led the investigation of Night Dragon espionage operation of the Western multinational oil and gas companies, and traced them to Song Zhiyue, a Chinese national living in Heze City, Shandong Province.[11]

In late 2011, along with entrepreneur George Kurtz[12][13] and Gregg Marston, Dmitri Alperovitch co-founded and became the chief technology officer of CrowdStrike,[14] a security technology company focused on helping enterprises and governments protect their intellectual property and secrets against cyberespionage and cybercrime.

In 2015, CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), led a $100 million capital drive for CrowdStrike.[15] The firm brought on board senior FBI executives, such as Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director (EAD) of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch, and Steve Chabinsky, former deputy assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division. By May 2017, CrowdStrike had received $256 million in funding from Warburg Pincus, Accel Partners, and Google Capital and its stock was valued at just under $1 billion.[15]

Alperovitch was awarded the prestigious Federal 100 Award for his contributions to the U.S. federal information security[16] and was recognized in 2013 and 2015 as one of Washingtonian (magazine)'s Tech Titans for his accomplishments in the field of cybersecurity.

In August 2013, he was selected as one of MIT Technology Review's Top 35 Innovators Under 35, an award previously won by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Mark Zuckerberg.[17]

In 2016, Politico Magazine featured him as one of "Politico 50" influential thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American politics.[18]

In 2017, Fortune magazine listed Alperovitch in "40 Under 40" annual ranking of the most influential young people in business, along with Emmanuel Macron, Mark Zuckerberg, and Serena Williams.[19]

He is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and was named in December 2013 as one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 Leading Global Thinkers, along with Angela Merkel, John Kerry, Ben Bernanke, and Jeff Bezos.[20]

In February 2020, Alperovitch left CrowdStrike to launch a nonprofit focused on cybersecurity in a geopolitical context.[21][22]

References

  1. Jim Finkle (2011-08-03). "State actor seen in "enormous" range of cyber attacks". Reuters. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
  2. Poulsen, Kevin (September 25, 2019). "The Truth About Trump's Insane Ukraine 'Server' Conspiracy". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  3. "CrowdStrike CEO says company is 'nonpartisan,' issues 2020 warning". www.bizjournals.com.
  4. "The Russian Expat Leading the Fight to Protect America". www.esquire.com.
  5. "CrowdStrike's Immigrant Cofounder Fighting Cyber Criminals". www.forbes.com.
  6. "Dmitri Alperovitch talks about reputation-based spam protection". www.itworld.com.
  7. "Secure Computing to buy CipherTrust". www.networkworld.com.
  8. "Should Companies Bolster Their Cybersecurity by 'Hacking Back?'". www.fortune.com.
  9. "Tech firm moving headquarters from Hudson to St. Paul". www.bizjournals.com.
  10. Kim Zetter (2010-01-14). "Google Hack Attack Was Ultra Sophisticated, New Details Show". Wired. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  11. Nathan Hodge and Adam Entous (2011-02-10). "Oil Firms Hit by Hackers From China, Report Says". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  12. "George Kurtz - President, CEO and Co-Founder of Crowdstrike". crowdstrike.com.
  13. "Standing up at the gates of hell: CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz". Fortune. 29 July 2015.
  14. "CrowdStrike: Cloud-Native Endpoint Protection Platform". crowdstrike.com.
  15. "Google Capital Bets Big on CrowdStrike to Accelerate Hyper-growth". www.crowdstrike.com.
  16. "Federal 100: Dmitri Alperovitch". FCW. 2011-03-28. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  17. "35 Innovators Under 35 2013". MIT Technology Review. 2013-08-21. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
  18. "Dmitri Alperovitch (Politico 50)". POLITICO Magazine. 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
  19. "Dmitri Alperovitch (Fortune 40 Under 40)". Fortune Magazine. 2017. Archived from the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  20. "Top 100 Leading Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. 2013-10-09. Archived from the original on 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2013-10-09..
  21. "CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch steps down to launch nonprofit". CyberScoop. 2020-02-19. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  22. Novinson, Michael (2020-02-19). "CrowdStrike Co-Founder Dmitri Alperovitch Leaves To Launch Nonprofit". CRN. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.