Tod Beardsley
Details
Information Technology Management
Western Governors University
2012 : 2013
Computer Science
Austin Community College
2007 : 2009
Computer Science
University of Pittsburgh
1994 : 1995
Never actually enrolled
Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
1993 : 1996
Pre-Law
Univeristy of Redlands
1992 : 1993
As team lead, I also provide mentorship and leadership on building CSD's techniques and tooling for understanding and communicating salient facts about vulnerabilities and their impact on various United States federal agencies, critical infrastructure industries, and the internet at large.
2023 : Present
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Cybersecurity Specialist
I am the primary researcher, narrator, audio engineer, social media manager, and co-host of the internationally tolerated and award shunning podcast, Podsothoth : A Lovecraft Book Club. Each pair of episodes features a reading of a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft, followed by a discussion episode featuring my regular co-host, Claire Reynolds.
Podsothoth is the flagship brand of the Huge Success digital media portfolio.
2020 :
Huge Success, LLC
Podcaster
I was the Director of Research at Rapid7, where I managed a team of software engineers that maintained and enhanced Rapid7's internet telemetry infrastructure. I also managed software vulnerability research efforts, handled vulnerability disclosures, and contributed to Rapid7's data science-driven research projects. Finally, I was the primary spokesperson for Rapid7 on security and research topics in the media.
Prior to my director role at Rapid7, I was the technical engineering manager for the open source Metasploit project, and prior to that, I was one of the core developers on both the open source framework and the commercial Metasploit Express and Metasploit Pro offerings. I still occasionally contribute code to Metasploit Framework as well as other open source projects.
2010 : 2023
Rapid7, Inc.
Director of Research
My main focus at BreakingPoint was to research, reverse, and implement both open and proprietary network application protocols for our award-winning network modeling products. I also researched and developed exploits for network vulnerabilities for BreakingPoint Strike Packs. Occasionally, I discovered new and novel vulnerabilities across a range of technologies. I also contributed to the open source Metasploit Framework, mostly in the pure-Ruby implementations of various protocols, with the occasional exploit or auxiliary module useful for general penetration testing.
2008 : 2010
BreakingPoint Systems
Lead Application Protocol Engineer
At TippingPoint, I was the lead engineer for the Digital Vaccine group, where I led a team of engineers in researching and creating Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) signatures to catch malicious activity over the network. I was also involved in the creation of the Zero Day Initiative, one of the first successful bug bounty programs launched in the industry, as well as worked to maintain our technical capabilities and integrity through our acquisition by 3Com in 2005 and the (failed) H3C joint venture escapade between Huawei and 3Com.
2004 : 2008
TippingPoint
Digital Vaccine Engineer
Skills
+3 To-Hit Versus Orcs, Application Security, Audio Engineering, Breathing, Computer Forensics, Computer Networking, Computer Security, Cryptography, Ethical Hacking, Federal Government, Git, Github, IDS, Information Security, Information Technology, Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP), Internet Security, Intrusion Detection, IPS, Leadership, Linux, Literacy, Management, Metasploit, Networking, Network Security, Open-Source Development, Penetration Testing, Pharmaceutical Sales, Pickles, Plan 9, Podcasting, Project Management, Public Speaking, Reverse Engineering, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Running Into the 50 Skill Cap on LinkedIn And So I Guess I've Reached Peak Skills, Security, Security Awareness, Social Media, Software Development, TCP/IP, TCP/IP stack, Technical Leadership, Vision, Vulnerability Assessment, Vulnerability Management, Vulnerability Scanning, Heat Vision, 3 To-Hit Versus Orcs
About
Generally, I'm an accomplished researcher, writer, and leader in technical security. I'm also a manager, hacker, open source maintainer, conference organizer, blogger, and podcaster.
These days, I concentrate on coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD), public infrastructure security (primarily election, transportation, and medical systems), and internet-wide threat analysis. My current position on the CVE Board lets me pursue these interests in a volunteer capacity.
In the past, I've been involved in intrusion prevention, vulnerability assessment and identification, anti-fraud/anti-phishing countermeasures, penetration testing and compliance auditing, intrusion detection and response, protocol analysis, and host hardening.
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