Zulfikar Ramzan
Zulfikar is the Chief Technology Officer of Elastica, Inc. In this role, he drives Elastica's efforts in leveraging data science and machine learning techniques towards improving the security of cloud services.
Prior to joining Elastica, Zulfikar was Chief Scientist at Sourcefire (acquired by Cisco), within their cloud technology group. At Sourcefire/Cisco, he was responsible for the technical vision as well as the in-field efficacy of the company's core advanced malware protection offerings. Prior to joining Sourcefire via its acquisition of Immunet in 2010, Zulfikar was Technical Director of Symantec's Security Technology and Response division. In all of these roles, Zulfikar used expertise in machine learning, large-scale data mining, and information security to protect customers from threats to their data.
Zulfikar has co-authored 50+ technical articles, and two books including Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2008. Zulfikar has 50+ patent applications, 40+ of which have been granted. He was selected and served as General Chair of Crypto 2010, the premier conference in the field of Cryptography. Beyond that, Zulfikar is a frequent public speaker and has briefed both numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and Reuters as well as members of the United States Congress on cyber-security trends and issues. Zulfikar has produced a series of cybersecurity educational videos (sourcefire.com/chalktalks) and has also served as a guest faculty for the educational non-profit Khan Academy (khanacademy.org).
Zulfikar holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with thesis work in cryptography.