John Peterson (technologist)

John Peterson (born in South Haven, Michigan, U.S.) is an award-winning entrepreneur, technologist and inventor of internet security and virtualization technologies. Peterson has authored articles on security and virtualization technologies, has been featured on the cover page of Communication News Magazine and his opinions on securing computer systems have been cited numerous times by the media. Peterson is also an inventor of the industries first 10 gigabit Intrusion Prevention System, Virtual Security Switch and multiscale Next Generation Firewall.

Biography
Peterson started his career by joining the United States Marine Corps, where he studied aviation electronics and computer science and worked on FLIR Systems on F18 Hornet aircraft in support of Operation Desert Storm. After his time in the Marine Corps, Peterson continued studies in Computer Information Systems while attending Devry University and upon decorated and honorable discharge from the Marine Corps he went on to work for U.S. Robotics, a data communications company that went IPO and was later acquired for $6 billion dollars by 3Com. His most notable point in his information security career was when he joined the founding team of NetScreen Technologies where and ran a Worldwide Systems Engineering organization at NetScreen Technologies, a company that had its IPO debut in 2001 and later was acquired for $4 billion dollars by Juniper Networks after he helped grow company revenues from $2 million a year to $223 million a year. He has held engineering, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer roles at U.S. Robotics, 3Com, Cisco Systems, NetScreen Technologies, Fortinet, Reflex Security, Montego Networks, Websense, Juniper Networks and Barracuda Networks. Throughout Peterson's career, he has been sought to consult with large enterprise corporations around the world, as well as the US Department of Defense and was instrumental in helping design the DoD's largest Firewall infrastructure for the Defense Information Systems Agency and NMCI. Peterson currently holds the post as the Vice President of Enterprise Technology at Barracuda Networks, a leader in information security.

Awards and inventions
Peterson invented the industries first 10 Gigabit Intrusion prevention system in 2006 and has multiple patents pending around virtualization technologies such as the System and Method for Implementing a Virtualized Security Platform He also co-founded a Virtualization Security Company called Montego Networks that made its debut in 2008 and was awarded Information Week Magazine's Top 10 Hottest Startup Companies to watch. Other patent filings include:

US12_134,472 - System and Method for Providing Security Analysis To Virtual Machines Connected On A Virtual Network Operating On A Host Machine

US12_134,475 - System and Method for Providing Security Analysis To Virtual Machines Connected On A Virtual Local Area Network Operating On A Host Machine

US12_134,471 - System and Method for Providing Security Analysis To Virtual Machines Connected On A Virtual Network Containing External Policy Engines Operating On A Host Machine

Media activity
InfoWorld Magazine: Virtual security switch technology launched by Montego Networks

Channel Pro Magazine: Virtual Firewalls: A Shift in Security Practicies

Sys-Con.TV: Using the Cloud to Scale Security

TMC.net Magazine: Barracuda Networks Focused on Security

Exploring IMS Network Security for Next Generation Networks

Network Security at Warp 10 - Defending the Next Generation Enterprise Network

Security rules have changed: new solutions are necessary to protect virtualized networks

ZDNet Japan - Security Threats Evolve