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Guy Helmer, Ph.D.


Professional Experience

Since May 2000 I have worked at Palisade Systems, Inc., where my current title is Principal Systems Architect. I have designed and developed the Content Surety framework, and PacketSure (formerly PacketHound) and PacketDecoy (formerly SmokeDetector) network management and security appliances. I have also assisted design and development of the other components of the Palisade Security Suite, the PacketGuard (formerly FireBlock) network security appliance and the FireMarshal suite manager application.

The PacketSure identifies network applications based on the application-layer communications seen on the network.  A Windows-based administration utility allows users to define actions to be taken on network connections identified with particular applications.  Applications can be managed based on time of day, day of week, bandwidth used, and network endpoints. Over sixty network applications are identified and managed by PacketHound.

The PacketDecoy can simultaneously emulate a number of different operating systems and network devices.  Each emulation appears to be a system running (possibly vulnerable) network services, thereby attracting attention of would-be attackers. A careful design & implementation combined with extensive use of FreeBSD security features results in a hardened system that attackers can chew on while their actions are recorded.All network transactions with the SmokeDetector are recorded into a database and reported via email, syslog, and SNMP traps.  

From 1989 to 1996, I was a Senior Systems Programmer in the Computing Services Department at Dakota State University . I had been involved in various ways with the development of the computing environment at DSU since the mission of the university changed in 1984 to focus on integration of computing technology into curriculum.

A partial list of my favorite activities:

Porting applications to various UNIX platforms
Managing world-wide web services, including:
Installing, configuring, and maintaining various HTTP servers
Writing and enhancing CGIs
Troubleshooting
Writing HTML documents, and fixing documents written by others
UNIX system administration
UNIX system security issues
Kerberos installation and use
Novell Netware server installation, maintenance, and administration
Specifying the design and installation of new LANs
Specifying the installation of leased-line WAN segments
Troubleshooting WAN segments and dealing with leased-line vendors
Troubleshooting and improving or replacing existing LANs
IP & IPX routing over LANs and WANs
Dealing with telecommunications vendors
TCP/IP network security issues
For many years I have consulted for various companies in Internet services and databases. My most interesting private work has been assisting Internet service providers solve technically difficult problems including Domain Name Service and security issues.

Graduate School

From August 1996 to December 2000 I was a graduate student in the Iowa State University Department of Computer Science. I completed my Ph.D. in December 2000 after successfully completing my research program and taking these graduate courses:
 
  • Advanced Concepts in Operating Systems
  • Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence
  • Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture
  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Architecture
  • Computer Network Architectures
  • Computer System Security I
  • Computer System Security II
  • Implementation of Operating Systems
  • Programming Languages I
  • Theory of Computation
  • Topics in Distributed Operating Systems
My personal research interests are operating systems, networks, and security. I received my M.S. in Computer Science in August, 1998. For my master's degree, I designed an intrusion detection system based on intelligent agents and have developed a prototype of the system in Java using ObjectSpace 's Voyager package for mobile, autonomous agents. For my Ph.D. degree, I examined requirements and design modeling for the agent-based intrusion detection system.

Research areas include:


Publications and Presentations

Papers and articles

Presentations


Undergraduate Experience

While an undergrad, I interned at ETA Systems (RIP, 1989), working on their supercomputers and testing Fortran compilers and vectorizers on big codes, and having fun with fractals while waiting for my jobs to complete. ETA Systems was a subsidiary of Control Data Corp. that, in the late 1980s, built some of the fastest vector-processing computers in the world, with a peak of 180 MFLOPS on the low-end $1-million ETA10-P and 10 GFLOPS on the top-end ETA10-G. After ETA Systems ran up losses of 300E6 dollars, and Control Data found it needed to refinance $150E6 of its debt, Control Data was forced to close the doors of ETA Systems almost a month to the day before I was to start working full-time for the company.

Other previous work included internships at Dakota State University, working on the long-forgotten Dakota State Teacher's Assistant Series of computer aided instruction software, and part-time work at SDSM&T in the Computer Center and President's Office, where my duties included supporting computer users and developing admissions progress reports.

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science, Fall 2000, Iowa State University
Honors: Boeing Dissertation Fellowship

Master of Science in Computer Science, 1998, Iowa State University
Honors: Phi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Pi Epsilon

B.S. in Computer Science with honors, 1989, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Guy Helmer <ghelmer@palisadesys.com> - Last Updated 03/24/2006