Steven Hofmeyr, 35 Devised software that roots out security
threats to a networks operating system When investors backed
Sana Security in San Mateo, CA, they took out $1 million in
insurance on chief scientist Steven Hofmeyr, because his ideas
about computer network security were their most valuable asset.
Sana Security (“sana” is Esperanto for healthy) treats intranets
and local-area networks much the way the human immune system
treats the body: when abnormal activity occurs, Sana software
recognizes the problem, isolates and analyzes it, then attempts
to fight it off. Network security typically relies on human
administrators who often arrive too late to stop intrusions (in
January the Slammer virus reportedly infected 75,000 machines
within 10 minutes). Other tools, such as software updates,
arrive after the fact and can be expensive. Sana’s Primary
Response product resides on each computer within a network and
continuously interrogates vulnerable applications, such as
e-mail programs, at the operating-syst