Phillip A. Porras is a computer scientist and security researcher known for his work combating the

Conficker Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm targeting the Microsoft Windows operating system that was first detected in November 2008. It uses flaws in Windows OS software and dictionary attacks on administrator passw ...

worm. Porras leads the Internet Security Group in SRI International's Computer Science Laboratory. He was previously a manager of the Trusted Computer Systems Department of The Aerospace Corporation. Porras holds 12 U.S. patents, and was named an SRI Fellow in 2013.

Education

Porras attended the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

Career

Porras was an author of patents involved in the 2008 case

SRI International, Inc. v. Internet Security Systems, Inc. ''SRI International, Inc. v. Internet Security Systems, Inc.'', 511 F.3d 1186 (Fed. Cir. 2008), was a patent infringement case which determined whether technical documents placed on a company's FTP server could be considered prior art as defined b ...

During the

worm's initial attack, Porras was running a honeypot and was one of the first security researchers to notice it; and was part of the "Conficker Cabal" that helped combat the worm. Porras' team in SRI published an extensive analysis of the worm. In 2010, Porras was a co-author of BLADE, a collaboration between SRI and Georgia Tech researchers designed to prevent

drive-by download Drive-by download is of two types, each concerning the unintended download of computer software from the Internet: # Authorized drive-by downloads are downloads which a person has authorized but without understanding the consequences (e.g. down ...

malware attacks.

Awards and memberships

Porras was named an SRI Fellow in 2013 for his long-term work in information security and malware analysis, and his recent research on OpenFlow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porras, Phillip A Living people Computer security exploits SRI International people University of California, Irvine alumni Year of birth missing (living people)