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Levi Gundert

Technical Lead

Cisco Threat Research, Analysis, and Communications (TRAC)

Over the past decade, Levi Gundert has become an internationally recognized information security and risk management leader and trusted cyber security advisor to leading corporations. As a Technical Leader for Cisco's Threat Research, Analysis & Communications (TRAC) team, he works to identify and analyze threats, share cyber security information to industry, government and the public, and help to continually improve Cisco security technology. Gundert is also a thought leader in the practical application of big data analytics in threat intelligence programs, and is particularly focused on developing solutions to help Cisco efficiently manage, query, and analyze massive volumes of real-time threat data.

 Previous roles

Gundert always had a deep interest in technology and security, and was able to explore both areas in depth during his time as a U.S. Secret Service Special Agent assigned to the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF). Before joining the U.S. Secret Service, Gundert worked as a senior network administrator for a West Coast-based financial institution and prior to that, was a systems administrator for a global consulting firm. He applied his knowledge from these technology roles in different cybercrime investigations that resulted in global arrests and prosecutions.

 As a special agent, Gundert developed new methodologies for proactively analyzing threat intelligence and producing actionable leads. Additionally, he helped gather criminal intelligence by covertly engaging hackers and fraudsters in the Underground. Gundert’s international assignments included embedding with the United Kingdom’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), and collaborating with City of London police which resulted in the arrest of multiple threat actors. Additionally, Gundert performed worldwide presidential and diplomatic protection as assigned by the U.S. Secret Service.

Gundert left government service in 2007 so he could devote his time solely to cyber threat research. He joined Team Cymru, a specialized Internet security research firm where he led the Threat Intelligence Group, an international team responsible for proactive threat monitoring, research, and analysis in support of both government and enterprise clients. During his six years at the nonprofit, Gundert supervised and contributed to more than 100 extensive analysis reports, including malware and network forensics on over 30 federal law enforcement investigations.

In 2012 Gundert was recruited by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (FBI-LEEDA) to develop and deliver a comprehensive law enforcement program on identify theft, fraud, and cybercrime. The course was presented to more than 600 federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.

 Gundert’s industry certifications include Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker, and Systems Security Certified Practitioner. Gundert is a frequent contributor to online information security magazines and is a regular lecturer at risk management conferences. Among the many organizations that have engaged Gundert as a guest speaker are INTERPOL, Kaspersky, the Australian Federal Police, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

To read Levi Gundert’s recent posts on security, visit http://blogs.cisco.com/author/levigundert/.

Articles

December 11, 2013

SECURITY

Big Data in Security – Part III: Graph Analytics

6 min read

Following part two of our Big Data in Security series on University of California, Berkeley’s AMPLab stack, I caught up with talented data scientists Michael Howe and Preetham Raghunanda to discuss their exciting graph analytics work. Where did graph databases originate and what problems are they trying to solve? Michael: Disparate data types have a lot of connections between […]

December 9, 2013

SECURITY

Big Data in Security – Part I: TRAC Tools

9 min read

Recently I had an opportunity to sit down with the talented data scientists from Cisco’s Threat Research, Analysis, and Communications (TRAC) team to discuss Big Data security challenges, tools and methodologies. The following is part one of five in this series where Jisheng Wang, John Conley, and Preetham Raghunanda share how TRAC is tackling Big Data. Given the hype surrounding […]

December 10, 2013

SECURITY

Big Data in Security – Part II: The AMPLab Stack

7 min read

Following part one of our Big Data in Security series on TRAC tools, I caught up with talented data scientist Mahdi Namazifar to discuss TRAC’s work with the Berkeley AMPLab Big Data stack. Researchers at University of California, Berkeley AMPLab built this open source Berkeley Data Analytics Stack (BDAS), starting at the bottom what is Mesos? AMPLab is looking at […]

October 8, 2013

SECURITY

Wireless Security Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

4 min read

As we continue our series of blog posts during National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), we focus today on some best common practices that can be used both at home and in the workplace to enhance the overall security posture of your Wireless Networks.

September 25, 2013

SECURITY

LexisNexis Breach Highlights Identity Theft Risks

6 min read

Who are you? Removing the obvious existential questions for a minute, your identity is often represented as a bundle of personally identifiable information (PII). In the United States PII begins at birth with a name, date of birth, and social security number (SSN). This morning’s KrebsOnSecurity post details the unauthorized access of computer systems (via malicious code) at Lexis Nexis and Dun […]

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