Vern Paxson, Ph.D., is a distinguished researcher and former professor at the University of California, Berkeley, with a stellar career in the field of computer science and cybersecurity. He has made groundbreaking contributions to advance our understanding of network security and Internet measurement and has earned multiple prestigious awards and recognitions. 

Paxson's illustrious career spans decades, marked by a commitment to unraveling the complexities of the Internet and cybersecurity threats. His influential work has not only shaped the academic landscape but has also had profound implications for real-world network security challenges. He is the creator of open-source technology Zeek (originally known as Bro), which has become the de facto standard for network security monitoring and network visibility. For his paper entitled "Bro: A System for Detecting Network Intruders in Real-Time" published in 1998 on Bro, Paxson received the distinguished USENIX "Test of Time" award. 

Zeek/Bro enabled computer networks at national labs, scientific computing facilities, universities, and large companies identify and block hundreds of thousands of hostile intrusions every month. The system played a critical role in identifying hackers trying to sell access to federal supercomputers. A number of NSF awards contributed to Zeek/Bro, including a Science and Technology Information System award, Information Technology award, Software Development for Cyberinfrastructure award and Cybersecurity Innovation award. 

Paxson has been the recipient of additional NSF support, including an NSF award to establish the Center for Internet Epidemiology and Defenses (CCIED), a joint effort between researchers at the University of California San Diego and the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California. The Center focused on tackling large-scale internet-based attacks like worms, viruses, and botnets from 2004 to 2012. CCIED conducted a groundbreaking study of the underground economy supporting these attacks in 2006 and 2007, revealing a thriving marketplace for stolen credit cards, accounts, malware toolkits, attack-for-hire services, and money laundering. 

A follow-on Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace award focused on understanding and disrupting online criminal activities. One successful outcome was the intervention in payment methods for spam-advertised products, making it difficult for criminal groups to receive payments and sell their products. The project also tackled issues like disrupting "DDoS for Hire" schemes, studying criminal exchanges on online forums, tracking payments through cryptocurrencies in sex trafficking, and investigating how private companies support nation-state hackers. 

In addition, Paxson received a Community Research Infrastructure award to enable greater capability for analysis of empirical social and economic phenomena in cyberspace such as massive online social networks, malicious web content, and underground cybercrime markets. Some key findings of this research include the analysis of threat intelligence feeds from over 300 sources, development of a unique dataset on web browser feature usage, detection of spear phishing attacks in large enterprise email logs, and development of algorithms for efficient measurement of the IPv6 address space. The research also delved into measuring internet censorship through IP header side-channels and DNS-based methods. 

In Paxson's own words, "NSF funding has been instrumental in advancing our research agenda. It has provided the essential support needed to explore innovative ideas, push the boundaries of knowledge in cybersecurity, and address critical challenges in network security. NSF has been a vital partner in fostering my research, enabling the realization of ambitious projects and ensuring their broader societal impact.” 

Paxson cofounded and served on the steering committees of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference, the ACM Workshop in Rapid Malcode, and the USENIX Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats. He served as program chair or co-chair of ACM SIGCOMM, USENIX Security, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, and ACM HotNets, and as an Area Director of the Internet Engineering Task Force. He is an ACM Fellow and recipient of the 2008 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for his work on Internet measurement, and has twice been a co-recipient of the IEEE Communications Society William R. Bennett Prize Paper award. He has also received the SIGCOMM and USENIX Lifetime Achievement awards, and Facebook’s Internet Defense Prize. He now serves as Chief Scientist at Corelight, Inc., a company he cofounded focused on network security monitoring, primarily using the Zeek/Bro technology.