Meet Jeremiah Grossman, CTO Of WhiteHat Security

Photograph by Jeffery Newbury

1

GONE PHISHIN'
Keeping out every phishing attack is important, Grossman says. "It only takes one phishing attack, and nobody wants to click on your links anymore. Once customers lose trust, it's really hard, if not impossible, to get it back."

2

JUST BROWSING
At last summer's Black Hat conference, Grossman predicted IT departments were 18 months away from attacks that would infect users' Web browsers with JavaScript malware embedded in the Web sites they visit. Once the browser is infected, the corporate network is next. Since that time, "I've only been confirmed in my belief, especially with the focus on cross-site scripting attacks on the Web."

3

SECURITY ADVOCATE
A founder of the Web Application Security Consortium and a contributing member of the Center for Internet Security Apache Benchmark Group, Grossman regularly posts his insights on several security e-mail lists. One clear message: "The payloads being delivered by Web application attacks are much more severe than in years past."

4

AYE, MATE
A fan of contact sports, Grossman has played Australian rules football in the Bay Area for three years. In football, "I play the ruck. That's the guy who always goes up for the ball and gets hit."

5

DEFENSE IN DEPTH
When he's not defending Web apps, Grossman is studying self-defense. He took up Brazilian jujitsu last year. "I've been an Ultimate Fighting Championship fan for years, and the jujitsu style of fighting is a lot of ground and pound; I really wanted to give it a try."