Famed Security Researcher Mudge Leaves Google for White House Gig

Peiter Zatko, a respected computer security researcher better known by the nickname Mudge, says he’s leaving his job at Google to head up a new government agency for the White House. Zatko announced the move on Twitter, "Goodbye Google ATAP, it was a blast. The White House asked if I would kindly create a #CyberUL, so here goes!"

In mentioning a CyberUL, he’s referring to a version of Underwriters Laboratories, the 111-year-old company that tests products of all kinds for safety, dedicated to cybersecurity. The concept of establishing a UL-like agency that would evaluate software and hardware products for their security capabilities has been discussed in computer security circles for years. It was first proposed in 1999 by L0pht Heavy Industries, a hacker think tank based in Cambridge (MA) of which Zatko was a member.