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Blue Ridge Networks is a proven and trusted provider of cybersecurity break prevention solutions. Our mission is to provide efficient high-assurance proactive protection of critical infrastructure that helps organizations avoid the costs and adverse impacts associated with reactive responses to compromises. Our unique CyberCloak software and systems secure critical assets and operations in zero-trust IT/OT network architectures. Numerous U.S. agencies and top industry entities have trusted our performance for over 20 years, placing their confidence in us to prevent exploits while realizing continuous return on their investments to achieve uninterrupted operational efficiency. No vulnerabilities of our solutions have ever been reported to date in the National Vulnerability Data Base.
John Higginbotham brings over three decades of high technology executive leadership to Blue Ridge. He is the manager of the USVC investment group, the founder and managing Member of SpaceVest investment management group, formerly the senior partner of SpaceVest Capital, a co-founder and former senior executive of International Technology Underwriters (Intec), and was the Product Manager for HP’s first microcomputers. Higginbotham has served on the Boards of Directors and as a senior executive of several public and private information technology, aerospace and defense, space industry, and other high technology growth companies. He has actively supported several prominent professional and community service organizations throughout his career. Higginbotham holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Maureen Gray created the Managed Services division within Blue Ridge Networks nearly 20 years ago to provide secure outsourced remote access and site to site network services to government agencies and commercial customers, especially within the healthcare and financial industries. She designed and established multiple SAS-70 certified secure Colocation facilities to house both managed services customer equipment and Blue Ridge management equipment. Gray led the initiative to create and implement corporate information security policies and has been responsible for creating and providing training to agencies and other customers. In addition, Gray was the Project Manager for the IMOD acquisitions for Secure Voice installed in over 25 Forts. She also implemented the Blue Ridge system for Secure Remote Access with Single Sign-on to Active Directory, using government-issued Common Access Card (CAC) certificates, within the DOIM communities. This system underwent extensive testing at the JITC and TIC labs at Fort Huachuca, and became approved for the U.S. Army’s use.
Tom Gilbert has supported the definition and development of cyber-security products and services for more than 30 years. His extensive security experience and technical background have been strong assets in bringing Blue Ridge Networks products and services to market quickly and successfully. Like many members of the Blue Ridge team, Gilbert has seen his share of “firsts” in the technology industry. He was on the first team to provide commercial delivery of high-speed multimedia over satellite while working at Satellite Business Systems, a one billion dollar company. He was also on the team that developed and launched the first V-LAN during his tenure at Network Systems Corporation, where he served as director of business development, marketing director, technical sales consultant, and a national account sales manager, leading the IBM and AT&T accounts.
Gilbert also managed the worldwide development and support of programming tools at IBM. He received a Bachelor of Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Combining the education of an astrophysicist, experience at research and development, and expertise at assembling and managing knowledge teams, Ken Hardwick has earned his place as a leader and visionary in the technology industry. Hardwick independently envisioned and was the first person to market several key technology services, including a VPN product using cryptographic tunneling, Virtual LAN (VLAN) technology for segregation of customer networks, multiprocessor architectures for Internet routing, and packet filtering. He has also developed network-based cryptosystems that remain the technique of choice in major federal intelligence agencies.
In 2005, Hardwick was one of only five individuals named as “Ones to Watch in 2006” in InfoWorld magazine’s Innovators Awards. “By abandoning business as usual, these honorees are striking new paths to efficiency and reliability across the board,” InfoWorld stated. “We are pleased to honor those who are leading the way with their ingenuity.”
Prior to Blue Ridge Networks, Hardwick was a fellow and director of advanced software development at Network Systems Corporation where he led the development of the comprehensive cryptography and packet filtering system that is used today in Blue Ridge Networks products and services. Among other patents, Hardwick holds a software patent for virtual routing. He received a Bachelor of Science in astrophysics and Bachelor of Arts in applied math from the University of Rochester.
As Vice President of Engineering for Blue Ridge Networks, Mukesh Sharma draws on more than seventeen years of product development management experience with the proven ability to build engineering teams and deliver products to meet both schedule and revenue goals. He has an extensive experience spanning more than 30 years in the field of data networking, telecommunication, systems development to the field of cyber security in the Enterprise, banking sector, retail industries and industrial control systems. Prior to becoming Vice President, Sharma was Director of Hardware and Firmware Engineering at Blue Ridge where he led the development of the award-winning next generation BorderGuard Server product line and RemoteLink product line.
Sharma joined Blue Ridge Networks from Megisto Systems Inc., where he served as software manager developing their Mobile Service Delivery Systems that deliver IP data services to Mobile Access Networks. Prior to that he worked at Salix Technologies, Alcatel Data Networks, Hyundai Network Systems, AT&T Bell Labs, Timeplex Inc. and Center For Development of Telematics in India.
Sharma received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Master of Science in Physics degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India.
Danille Wilson is the Vice President of Finance for Blue Ridge Networks, having worked her way up the corporate ladder from Staff Accountant to Senior Staff Accountant to Controller to VP of Finance. She has worked in the financial industry for over 15 years dealing with a wide range of economic, technical, regulatory, policy, legislative and business issues affecting both small and medium sized organizations. Wilson’s experience includes extensive work on pricing methodologies, rate design, revenue requirements, billing, inventory management, payroll and general accounting. Wilson has significant experience in the area of sales training and staff development, having worked on issues pertaining to automation, the use of new technologies, and customer satisfaction.
Wilson graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Mary Washington.
John Higginbotham brings over three decades of high technology executive leadership to Blue Ridge. He is the manager of the USVC investment group, the founder and managing Member of SpaceVest investment management group, formerly the senior partner of SpaceVest Capital, a co-founder and former senior executive of International Technology Underwriters (Intec), and was the Product Manager for HP’s first microcomputers. Higginbotham has served on the Boards of Directors and as a senior executive of several public and private information technology, aerospace and defense, space industry, and other high technology growth companies. He has actively supported several prominent professional and community service organizations throughout his career. Higginbotham holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Our cybersecurity solutions add a new layer of cyber defense that increases the security posture of our customers by orders of magnitude. To learn more about becoming a partner, contact partners@blueridgenetworks.com or use the contact form below.
Blue Ridge Networks, Borderguard, Linkguard, CyberCloak and other marks are trademarks or service marks of Blue Ridge Networks, Inc.
According to a report by IBM, data breach incident costs rose from $3.86 million to $4.24 million USD—the highest average total cost in 17 years. These rising costs—and the expansion of remote work—have placed cybersecurity as a top priority for organizations in 2022.
Segmentation limits scope of a security breach and risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Hide critical assets to create more resilient environments.
Ensure that data transmitted across unknown or hostile networks is uncompromised and remains confidential.
Add an extra layer of security to networks and devices, making it harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access.