Rodney Thayer is an independent computer security researcher. In his consulting practice, Pacific Network Research, he focuses on network attack and defense issues as they relate to business infrastructure. At PNR he works on security research (exploit development), product and infrastructure evaluations, and training/lecturing on computer security topics.

His background is in engineering, deployment, and evaluation of computer and network security solutions.

Thayer has held various positions in the design, implementation, deployment, and analysis of network security and network protocol systems. Most recently, he was a Security Architect at Counterpane Internet Security, where he was responsible for the cross-Internet secure communications mechanism used for their Managed Security Service. He has spent the last 25 years working in the computer industry, in such areas as protocol design, cryptographic system implementation, network deployment, and real-time systems development.

He has extensive experience working to standardize network security protocols and practices through organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF.) He was a member of the working Group responsible for delivering the first standard specification of the IPsec (IP security) protocol, and was involved in developing several IETF specifications including RFC 2411 (IPsec), RFC 2440 (PGP), in addition to involvment in work on TLS (web browser/SSL security) and Digital Certificates (X.509/PKI.)

He was also involved in creating the VPN Vendor Consortium and has extensive experience in the VPN marketplace.

He has written and lectured extensively on security matters and has presented work in a variety of forums including Data Communications magazine, several Internet Web Sites, Networld+Interop, and various other lecture and print venues including RSA and Black Hat. He has played Capture The Flag at Defcon (on a winning team), and has consulted for large and small enterprises and Infrastructure Operators.