Mr. Duren co-founded WetStone Technologies, Inc., a successful security technology company that specializes in security research and development and in digital forensic technologies.  At WetStone, Michael developed digital forensic products and cryptographic technology products that are sold and deployed worldwide today.  After the sale of WetStone, Mr. Duren has been helping organizations both large and small develop their cyber security defensive capabilities through cyber security program develop and assisting large entities deploy enterprise cryptographic solutions.

Mr. Duren has been working with GCR for more than five years to develop and apply methodologies for assessing and quantifying risks that cyber threats post to organizations.  He has performed security program assessments for a broad range of organizations that cover a multitude of sectors including manufacturing, technology products, energy, hospitality, healthcare, and consumer services.

Michael’s areas of expertise cover a large number of security-related technical topics, including:

• Live digital forensic data collection
• Penetration testing
• Incident response engagements
• Cryptographic key management for critical infrastructure protection
• Hardware Security Module (HSM) integration and deployment
• Secure digital timestamping
• Intrusion detection systems
• Malicious software detection
• Steganography and covert channels
• Liveness checking solutions for fingerprint biometric systems
• Advanced secure communications protocol design and development

Michael’s experience in these areas includes a mix of research and development, internal technology development, and product development.  As an entrepreneur, Michael’s has successfully led the transition of technology from concept to marketplace for products such as:

Thales’ Timestamp Solution – A cryptographic solution sold by Thales e-Security for issuing secure digital timestamps.

Gargoyle Investigator – Tools used by forensic investigators for classifying discovered content in order to identify known information useful to investigations.

Stego Hunt – The first tool in the digital forensic marketplace for helping investigators look for and identify the use of data hiding methods and technologies.

Sovereign Time – A service that enables digital timestamps to be auditable by a third party and traceable to a known, trusted source of time.

Several of Michael’s marketplace success stories include the successful transition of technology from government sponsored Research and Develop to commercial product, a critical measure of success for most government sponsored R&D programs and organizations.

Mr. Duren continues to help organizations deploy cryptography within their enterprise based in his experience in cryptographic technologies across commercial and government sectors.  His experience across a broad range of domains and within organizations both large and small enables him to provide valuable, relevant advise on cyber security topics.  Michael is able to assess the cyber security capabilities of an organization quickly and provide recommendations using sound principles and prudent extents.

Mr. Duren received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of South Florida.  He is a talented speaker and has published works on security related topics.  Michael is a practicing Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and has held DoD security clearances throughout his career.