Cybersecurity is essential, because the threats are real — and growing.

Malicious actors, ranging from individual hackers to established governments, regularly attempt to penetrate public and private infrastructure. They’re often successful. The complexity of modern systems, with all of their cyber, physical, and human components, usually presents many avenues of attack, some of which will be much more damaging than others.

Achilles Heel Technologies was founded to provide a uniquely powerful and effective cybersecurity solution. Based on cutting-edge research, Achilles Heel enables government and commercial customers to model their complex systems, see where they’re vulnerable, and understand which successful attacks would be most damaging. Forewarned is forearmed, allowing much more effective defense and elimination of the serious vulnerabilities.

Meet the Team

Jerry Rudisin, CEO

Jerry Rudisin has over 30 years of executive experience in B2B software companies, most recently as CEO of four venture-backed software startups: Flybits, which created the first cloud-based context-as-a-service platform for the personalization of mobile marketing experiences; Schooner Information Technology, which developed database software optimized for flash memory and multi-core processors (acquired by SanDisk Corporation in 2012); Agitar Software, which automated unit-level software testing (acquired by McCabe Software in 2008); and NightFire Software, which developed service-management software for telecom carriers (acquired by NeuStar in 2003). From 1991 to 1999 Jerry led marketing at Rational Software Corporation (acquired by IBM in 2003) as it grew from a private company with $28 million in revenue to a public company with $412 million in revenue. From 1986 to 1991 he was Vice President of Marketing at a startup near Boston. Previously he was a software developer and manager. Jerry earned his MS in Computer Science from UCLA and his BS in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering from MIT.

David Grimsman - Director, Product Development

David is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Brigham Young University. He received a PhD from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UC Santa Barbara, being advised by Professor Jason Marden and Professor João Hespanha. His research interests are centered on multiagent systems, game theory, distributed optimization, mechanism design, and security.

Benjamin Francis - Chief Scientist/Principal Investigator

Ben joined Achilles Heel Technologies to lead a DOE-funded project to develop mathematical techniques with which to analyze models of electrical power systems and illuminate where these systems are vulnerable and need protection. Prior to this, he spent a year and a half as a postdoctoral fellow at BYU, where he worked on two projects: one developing model reduction methods for complex systems, and the other working in superconductivity theory. Ben received a Ph.D. in Physics from BYU and a B.S. in Physics from BYU-Idaho.

        Mark Transtrom
       Technical Consultant
       Andrew Pieper
       Project Manager
       Richard Fullmer
       Software Architect
      Brian Brown
      Technical Analyst

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