833-847-3280
Schedule a Call

Local Cyber Expert Wins 2016 Sharkfest Packet Challenge Competition

Colorado Springs, Colo. (July 14, 2016) – Jonathon Ford, longtime Colorado Springs resident and penetration tester, competed against 100 other entrants to win the title at the 2016 Sharkfest Wireshark Developer and User Conference. Ford was able to complete and win this challenge laid down by Laura Chappell, who is the author of Wireshark Network Analysis.

Ford’s true expertise is with penetration testing and is currently employed as the Web Application Penetration Testing Lead with MainNerve, a defense and commercial cybersecurity firm located in Colorado Springs. This is the first time Ford has won this award. He was happy with the win, saying, “Finally – proof that I’m Wireshark Ninja!”

Wireshark is the most widely used Open Source tool for protocol analysis on the market today.
The contest is held every year at the Sharkfest Conference in Mountain View, Colorado. Sharkfest is an annual educational conference focused on sharing knowledge, experience and best practices among members of the Wireshark global developer and user communities. Participants come together to hone their skills in the art of packet analysis by attending a rich and varied schedule of sessions taught by the most seasoned experts in the industry.

About MainNerve

MainNerve has a long history of providing industry leading cyber security services to the U.S. Government, specifically the Department of Defense. Currently, MainNerve acts as a consultant in cyber security to the U.S. Special Operations units and provides advanced training to elite combat forces in a wide variety of cyber security disciplines. MainNerve is the only cybersecurity firm to have been awarded the U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) contract, to provide training for the “Cyber Signature Reduction” course. MainNerve’s signature is an exclusive combination of advanced technology and expert analysis, delivering real-time, active defense to protect their clients’ most valued assets. More information may be found at www.mainnerve.wpengine.com

Latest Posts

A transparent image used for creating empty spaces in columns
If your website runs on WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or almost any custom web application built in the last two decades, there’s a very good chance it runs on PHP. Today, PHP released emergency patches for two critical vulnerabilities affecting every version of the language back…
A transparent image used for creating empty spaces in columns
Your sales team opens emails from strangers all day. Someone wants pricing, someone else has a project coming up, and another found you online and wants to know if you can handle a certain volume. Responding to those emails is part of the job, and…
A transparent image used for creating empty spaces in columns
Microsoft published its 2026 Digital Defense Report this week, drawing on more than 165 trillion daily security observations across its global infrastructure. The report covers a 12-month period from July 2025 through June 2026, and the numbers have direct implications for how small businesses think…
A transparent image used for creating empty spaces in columns
The National Cybersecurity Alliance, working with CISA, surveyed 1,000 small business leaders across 10 industries. The results describe a false sense of security that’s remarkably consistent across small businesses of every size and industry. The study found that 86% of small businesses feel confident about…
A transparent image used for creating empty spaces in columns
Most of the security advice you’ve heard about protecting your Microsoft 365 accounts includes using a strong password and turning on MFA. That combination stops the vast majority of credential-based attacks, and it’s still good advice. EvilTokens is a good reason to understand where that…
A transparent image used for creating empty spaces in columns
McKesson is one of the largest healthcare companies in the United States. It distributes pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics nationwide. Like most companies of its size, the data behind all of is stored in enterprise cloud platforms. The recent breach contains…
contact

Our Team

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Name(Required)
On Load
Where? .serviceMM
What? Mega Menu: Services