Here's an announcement that really pleases me. At RSA a couple of years ago, I had the chance to meet and talk with John Stewart from Cisco. John's their Chief Security Officer, and talked in detail about the challenges of securing a network like Cisco's. From a vendor perspective, John's got a better handle on the real world and what it takes than a number of vendor CSOs.

I've talked with Tony Fascenda and Matt Capoccia from KoolSpan a couple of times. This is an incredibly sharp company with some really neat technology that we'll be seeing a lot more of. While my background in VPN technologies quickly made the elegance of what KoolSpan does obvious, they're been slowly gaining credibility and explosure as their success continues.

Kudos to KoolSpan for bring John on board. And kudos to John for seeing real innovation and potential in the security space. I'll be watching for some exciting things ahead here.

Here's John's bio from the Cisco web site

John N. Stewart
Vice President and Chief Security Officer
Corporate Security Programs Organization
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Mr. Stewart provides leadership and direction to multiple corporate security teams throughout Cisco, strategically aligning with business units and the IT organization to generate leading corporate security practices, policies, and processes. The Corporate Security Programs Organization focuses on global information security consulting and services, security evaluation, critical infrastructure assurance, eDiscovery, source code security, identification management, as well as special programs that promote Cisco, Internet, and national security. Additionally, he is responsible for overseeing the security for Cisco Connection Online, the infrastructure supporting Cisco’s more than $28.5 billion business.

Mr. Stewart’s longstanding career in information security encompasses numerous roles. He was the Chief Security Officer responsible for operational and strategic direction for corporate and customer security at Digital Island. Mr. Stewart has served as a research scientist responsible for investigating emerging technologies in the Office of the CTO at Cable & Wireless America. He has professional experience in software development, systems and network administration, and is a software specialist, author, and instructor. Mr. Stewart has given numerous tutorials and presentations at various security forums, including SANS, USENIX, and the Java Security Alliance.

Throughout his career, he has been an active member of the security industry community. He served on advisory boards for Akonix, Finjan, Cloudshield, Riverhead, Panorama Venture Capital (formerly JPMorganPartners Venture) and TripWire, Inc. Currently, Mr. Stewart sits on technical advisory boards for Ingrian Networks, and Signacert, Inc.

Mr. Stewart’s publications and recent speaking engagements include:
Author, Securing Cisco Routers Step by Step
Co-Author, Internet WWW Security FAQ, found online at the W3C
US Secret Service Public Private Partnership Summit, 2005, San Jose, CA
CSO Summit, 2005, Sydney, Australia
ISSA Sacramento, 2006, Sacramento, CA
Federal Reserve Payments Conference, 2006, Chicago, IL
Cisco and Microsoft Security Summit, 2006, Sydney, Australia
Deloitte TMT Summit, 2006, Dallas, TX
US-Japan Critical Infrastructure Protection Forum, 2006 Washington D.C.

Mr. Stewart holds a Master of Science Degree in Computer and Information Science from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.

CISCO CSO JOHN N. STEWART JOINS KOOLSPAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Industry visionary cites KoolSpan innovation and simplicity as drivers behind his decision to join.

Bethesda, Md., June 4, 2007 – KoolSpan, the information security industry's leading innovator of embeddable security technology for network-aware devices, today announced that John N. Stewart, Vice President and Chief Security Officer, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), will join its board of directors effective immediately.

"For years, security technology has grown increasingly complex, requiring specialized skills that increase operational costs," Mr. Stewart said. "Today, I firmly believe that businesses need secure authentication and connectivity solutions that are easier to deploy and maintain. KoolSpan's technology is designed to meet this need. I am happy to be joining the company's board and look forward to participating in its future."

A veteran in the information security discipline for more than 15 years, Stewart provides leadership and direction to corporate security teams throughout Cisco's global enterprise, strategically aligning his organization with the company's business and IT goals to ensure industry-leading corporate security practices, policies, processes, and technology deployments. Among Cisco's assets, he is responsible for overseeing the security of cisco.com, the online infrastructure supporting Cisco's $28.5 billion business.

KoolSpan’s TrustChip™ hardware, in combination with its award-winning cryptographic software, is available today in off-the-shelf network protection products, as well as OEM developer kits. KoolSpan’s technology delivers simple, secure connectivity for a wide range of enterprise, industrial and OEM applications.

“We are delighted to welcome John to the KoolSpan board,” said KoolSpan Chief Executive Officer Tony Fascenda. “John has a superlative reputation as one of the security industry’s leading minds, and we look forward to accelerating our leadership position with his guidance and direction.”

KoolSpan technology has been rigorously tested and favorably reviewed by top security research organizations in the United States government, as well as many industry trade publications. In April, KoolSpan was named an Information Security Magazine/TechTarget Readers Choice Award winner for Best Emerging Technology. The company was honored in February with an SC Magazine SC Award for Best Multi-Factor Authentication technology, and late last year was named one of the Top Ten “Security Companies to Watch” by the editors of Network World.

About KoolSpan, Inc.
Based in Bethesda, Md., KoolSpan provides simple secure connectivity solutions that seamlessly unite mission-critical network devices. KoolSpan’s off-the-shelf enterprise solutions create secure and trusted connections between any two points independent of network boundaries, from servers to smartphones. KoolSpan’s embeddable solutions protect a wide variety of critical devices from online terminals to security systems. For OEMs, KoolSpan provides a flexible, cost-effective approach to device security that can drop in, operate automatically and self-manage in a wide range of platforms. To learn more, visit www.koolspan.com or call 240.880.4400.