FSA Corporation
Encyclopedia
FSA Corporation developed UNIX
and Windows
system level software for security
and distributed system administration in the 1990s. The company is notable for having provided the underlying technology basis for software offerings by IBM
, Symantec
, and McAfee
, and thus provides part of the historical backdrop of some of those companies' most widely used offerings. FSA's best successes were with its Load Balancer distributed workload management solution, its PowerBroker secure system administration solution for controlling and auditing the power of root
on UNIX
networks, and its CipherLink network encryption solution. The FSA team went on to broaden McAfee
's offerings from pure anti-virus to a broad-based security suite following FSA's acquisition by that company in 1996. The company is also notable for having served as the breeding ground for Theo de Raadt
's ideas concerning open source, which led to the OpenBSD
operating system. de Raadt was FSA's first non-founding employee.
sales representative (Gary Erickson) to form a company that could serve and consult to Calgary
-area oil companies with UNIX
computer networks.
).
. Dan Freedman renamed the company from Freedman, Sharp, and Associates to FSA Corporation, and changed its focus from system-administrative consulting to distributed workload management.
security course. The course comprised over 500 pages of materials along with a tape of open source tools for managing the security of a UNIX
network. Freedman marketed and taught the course 10 times in 1992 in various North American cities. He cites the course as being an important way of learning the concerns of system administrators, providing the feedback he needed to decide what products and services FSA would offer next.
While the security course phase of FSA's history did not produce any notable products, it is interesting to note that the course served as an important mechanism by which the company could quickly engage with potential customers, learning their needs and deriving a plan for product development on the basis of what was learned.
had involved the development of a process migration
subsystem for networks of Sun Microsystems
computers. From 1992 - 1994, the company commercialized that work, developing the company's Load Balancer product, which was a versatile system for distributing batch jobs across the increasingly larger networks of computers emerging at that time. Freedman hired Theo de Raadt
as FSA's first employee. De Raadt's programming and architecture competence have since been proven in his OpenBSD
operating system project, but at the time FSA Corporation was his first job since graduating from the University of Calgary
. In January, 1994, the Load Balancer product line was sold to Unison Tymlabs, which needed a UNIX-based product line ahead of its IPO. Unison has since been absorbed via acquisition by IBM
, and the Load Balancer product line is now sold by IBM
.
products, but which allowed centralized control and auditing of an entire network even down to the keystroke level, with the logs stored on a dedicated remote computer to which the system administrators typically did not have access. By vetting all access and logging through this remote machine, a secure log could be maintained. The system was ported to over 22 versions of UNIX
to accommodate the newer, larger networks with hundreds or thousands of machines. Dean Huxley was responsible for most of the system-level programming on PowerBroker, with Kevin Chmilar and Earle Lowe also contributing.
The PowerBroker product line was sold non-exclusively to Raxco and Symark Software (now known as BeyondTrust
).
, and PowerFTP, which provided encrypted file transfer. In February 1996, Freedman realized that this technology could be generalized, resulting in a general-purpose network encryption solution that would encrypt the traffic of any application, without requiring much, if any, modification to that application. Chmilar, Huxley, and Earle Lowe worked tirelessly around the clock to prepare a demonstrable version of this new CipherLink product in time for the Networld+Interop trade show in April, 1996. The product was extremely well received, and became a finalist for the coveted Best Product of Show award at the trade show that year.
) in a non-exclusive deal. Ironically, McAfee also sold rights to PowerBroker to Raxco, which was later acquired by arch-rival Symantec
. McAfee
continued its security expansion with the acquisition of Trusted Information Systems
and PGP
in the coming years, rounding out its role as a leading supplier of security solutions.
During its tenure, FSA Corporation developed a reputation as a leading-edge technology player with reliable solutions, and exceptionally good customer service. Many of the personnel involved with FSA later joined another Freedman high-technology startup company, Jasomi Networks
.
s. Instead, the company truly boot-strapped itself with customer revenues. The company also benefitted from the generous and successful IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program) program operated by the Government of Canada
, and a high-technology tax credit known as SRED available to Canadian companies. Although the total amount of funds received by the company under these programs was quite small, the funds were made available at exactly the time in the company's life cycle where they would do the most good.
in 1996 for $23m was an extremely positive event for the company's employees and customers, and through taxation, allowed the Government of Canada
to realize a very good return on the IRAP
and SRED monies its had shared with the company. Similarly, this payback through taxation provided significant evidence of the value of the Government's investment in the University education system that provided the company with the intellectual capital needed to become viable.
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
system level software for security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
and distributed system administration in the 1990s. The company is notable for having provided the underlying technology basis for software offerings by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
, and McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
, and thus provides part of the historical backdrop of some of those companies' most widely used offerings. FSA's best successes were with its Load Balancer distributed workload management solution, its PowerBroker secure system administration solution for controlling and auditing the power of root
Root
In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...
on UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
networks, and its CipherLink network encryption solution. The FSA team went on to broaden McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
's offerings from pure anti-virus to a broad-based security suite following FSA's acquisition by that company in 1996. The company is also notable for having served as the breeding ground for Theo de Raadt
Theo de Raadt
Theo de Raadt , born May 19, 1968 in Pretoria, South Africa, is a software engineer who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is the founder and leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects, and was a founding member of the NetBSD project.- Childhood :...
's ideas concerning open source, which led to the OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
operating system. de Raadt was FSA's first non-founding employee.
Foundation of the company
The company was conceived in a 1989 meeting between Dan Freedman and Maurice Sharp, both of whom had been asked by their Apollo ComputerApollo Computer
Apollo Computer, Inc., founded 1980 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts by William Poduska and others, developed and produced Apollo/Domain workstations in the 1980s. Along with Symbolics and Sun Microsystems, Apollo was one of the first vendors of graphical workstations in the 1980s...
sales representative (Gary Erickson) to form a company that could serve and consult to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
-area oil companies with UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
computer networks.
Consulting Phase
From 1989 through the end of 1991, Freedman and Sharp operated FSA as a consulting company, dealing at the driver and administration level with the large computer networks of the day (large in 1990 meant anything more than about 10 computers on a LANLän
Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....
).
Departure of Maurice Sharp
In early 1992, Maurice Sharp chose to leave the company, taking a full-time intern position at Apple ComputerApple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
. Dan Freedman renamed the company from Freedman, Sharp, and Associates to FSA Corporation, and changed its focus from system-administrative consulting to distributed workload management.
Security Course Phase
Shortly after the departure of Maurice Sharp, Freedman began to assemble materials for a 3-day UNIXUnix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
security course. The course comprised over 500 pages of materials along with a tape of open source tools for managing the security of a UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
network. Freedman marketed and taught the course 10 times in 1992 in various North American cities. He cites the course as being an important way of learning the concerns of system administrators, providing the feedback he needed to decide what products and services FSA would offer next.
While the security course phase of FSA's history did not produce any notable products, it is interesting to note that the course served as an important mechanism by which the company could quickly engage with potential customers, learning their needs and deriving a plan for product development on the basis of what was learned.
Load Balancer
Freedman's graduate work at the University of CalgaryUniversity of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
had involved the development of a process migration
Process migration
Process migration is when processes in computer clusters are able to move from machine to machine. Process migration is implemented in, among others, OpenMosix....
subsystem for networks of Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
computers. From 1992 - 1994, the company commercialized that work, developing the company's Load Balancer product, which was a versatile system for distributing batch jobs across the increasingly larger networks of computers emerging at that time. Freedman hired Theo de Raadt
Theo de Raadt
Theo de Raadt , born May 19, 1968 in Pretoria, South Africa, is a software engineer who lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is the founder and leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects, and was a founding member of the NetBSD project.- Childhood :...
as FSA's first employee. De Raadt's programming and architecture competence have since been proven in his OpenBSD
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
operating system project, but at the time FSA Corporation was his first job since graduating from the University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
. In January, 1994, the Load Balancer product line was sold to Unison Tymlabs, which needed a UNIX-based product line ahead of its IPO. Unison has since been absorbed via acquisition by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, and the Load Balancer product line is now sold by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
.
PowerBroker
The sale of Load Balancer left the company with staff and cash, but no product. Freedman had developed and marketed a 3-day UNIX security course in 1992, and had developed significant contacts within the banking, defense, and chip-making communities. These customers all had similar problems in managing large UNIX networks, specifically concerning the control and audit of the actions of the systems' administrators. The problem was that the root account used by systems administrators when reconfiguring parts of the system, was able to edit any of the audit trails created by the system. Freedman designed a new product, PowerBroker, that was similar in concept to today's sudoSudo
sudo is a program for Unix-like computer operating systems that allows users to run programs with the security privileges of another user...
products, but which allowed centralized control and auditing of an entire network even down to the keystroke level, with the logs stored on a dedicated remote computer to which the system administrators typically did not have access. By vetting all access and logging through this remote machine, a secure log could be maintained. The system was ported to over 22 versions of UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
to accommodate the newer, larger networks with hundreds or thousands of machines. Dean Huxley was responsible for most of the system-level programming on PowerBroker, with Kevin Chmilar and Earle Lowe also contributing.
The PowerBroker product line was sold non-exclusively to Raxco and Symark Software (now known as BeyondTrust
BeyondTrust
BeyondTrust is an American company that develops, markets, and supports a family of access control products for UNIX and Windows operating systems. The organization is one of the 500 largest software companies in the world...
).
- Raxco launched Axent Technologies, as "a division exclusively committed to providing cross-platform, client/server security solutions" , and the product was re-named UNIX Privilege Manager (UPM). Axent was subsequently sold to Symantec Corporation, who later spun of UPM and other products as PassGo Technologies, now part of Quest SoftwareQuest SoftwareQuest Software is a computer software manufacturer headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California. Founded in 1987, Quest develops, manufactures and supports software used by Information Technology professionals in a variety of industries...
. - BeyondTrust continues to sell the product under the PowerBroker name.
CipherLink, PowerTelnet, and PowerFTP
In 1995, the company began to develop network encryption technologies, again in response to a growing number of similar requests from its customers. Early products in this sphere included PowerTelnet which is comparable to today's sshSecure Shell
Secure Shell is a network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution and other secure network services between two networked computers that it connects via a secure channel over an insecure network: a server and a client...
, and PowerFTP, which provided encrypted file transfer. In February 1996, Freedman realized that this technology could be generalized, resulting in a general-purpose network encryption solution that would encrypt the traffic of any application, without requiring much, if any, modification to that application. Chmilar, Huxley, and Earle Lowe worked tirelessly around the clock to prepare a demonstrable version of this new CipherLink product in time for the Networld+Interop trade show in April, 1996. The product was extremely well received, and became a finalist for the coveted Best Product of Show award at the trade show that year.
Professionalization
In early 1995, Paul Scripko joined the company as its first VP of Sales. He and Freedman had met at Unison Tymlabs, where he had assumed responsibility for sales of FSA's Load Balancer product line after its acquisition in 1994. Scripko professionalized FSA's sales machine, and the company immediately began to derive higher revenues from larger customers. Also around this time, Benjamin Freedman (brother of Dan Freedman) began to work part-time as the company's VP of Marketing, further enhancing the company's stature and exposure. Gary Neill was brought on board by Dan Freedman as a management consultant in the Fall of 1995, and remained with the company until its acquisition by McAfee in 1996. Freedman would likely have installed Neill as CEO of FSA Corporation had the acquisition by McAfee not occurred.Acquisition by McAfee Associates
In August, 1996, FSA was acquired by antivirus maker McAfee Associates, which wanted to expand its products from antivirus into the more general security area. The FSA team developed 12 new product lines for McAfee in the following 12 months, including NetCrypto, PCCrypto, WebScan, McAfee Personal Firewall, and a number of other products only some of which were successful. With little interest in UNIX software at that time, McAfee sold the PowerBroker product line to Symark Software (now known as BeyondTrustBeyondTrust
BeyondTrust is an American company that develops, markets, and supports a family of access control products for UNIX and Windows operating systems. The organization is one of the 500 largest software companies in the world...
) in a non-exclusive deal. Ironically, McAfee also sold rights to PowerBroker to Raxco, which was later acquired by arch-rival Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
. McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
continued its security expansion with the acquisition of Trusted Information Systems
Trusted Information Systems
Trusted Information Systems was a computer security research and development company during the 1980s and 1990s, performing computer and communications security research for organizations such as NSA, DARPA, ARL, AFRL, SPAWAR, and others.TIS was founded in 1983 by NSA veteran Steve Walker, and at...
and PGP
Pretty Good Privacy
Pretty Good Privacy is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, E-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security...
in the coming years, rounding out its role as a leading supplier of security solutions.
During its tenure, FSA Corporation developed a reputation as a leading-edge technology player with reliable solutions, and exceptionally good customer service. Many of the personnel involved with FSA later joined another Freedman high-technology startup company, Jasomi Networks
Jasomi Networks
-About:Jasomi Networks was a pioneer in the development of Session Border Controllers , computer network devices that enable, control, and monitor the flow of multimedia data streams across carrier networks, corporate networks, home networks, and the Internet.-History and evolution:The concept for...
.
Investment
FSA Corporation was funded without the assistance of venture capital or angel investorAngel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
s. Instead, the company truly boot-strapped itself with customer revenues. The company also benefitted from the generous and successful IRAP (Industrial Research Assistance Program) program operated by the Government of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and a high-technology tax credit known as SRED available to Canadian companies. Although the total amount of funds received by the company under these programs was quite small, the funds were made available at exactly the time in the company's life cycle where they would do the most good.
Retrospective
The acquisition of the company by McAfeeMcAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
in 1996 for $23m was an extremely positive event for the company's employees and customers, and through taxation, allowed the Government of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to realize a very good return on the IRAP
IRAP
IRAP can refer to several things:*The International Road Assessment Program*The medical treatment using Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Protein*Insulin responsive aminopeptidase...
and SRED monies its had shared with the company. Similarly, this payback through taxation provided significant evidence of the value of the Government's investment in the University education system that provided the company with the intellectual capital needed to become viable.