NSS Labs, the leader in test-based research and analysis of information security products, today announced that both John W. Pirc and Jason Pappalexis have joined its fast-growing team of industry-leading security analysts.

Pirc joins NSS as Research Vice President where he will focus on threat intelligence, network security, crimeware, malware, and SCADA security. Pirc is a well-known security intelligence and cybercrime expert who has held strategic positions leading product development, marketing and research at several leading security companies such as HP, McAfee, IBM/ISS, Cisco and began his security career at the Central Intelligence Agency. Pirc is a noted speaker who has presented at leading security conferences around the world such as RSA, AusCert, SecTor and Security B-sides, and is the co-author of two books: Blackhatonomics published in December 2012, and Cybercrime and Espionage published in February 2011.

Pappalexis joins NSS as a Research Analyst and will focus on systems management, cloud security, perimeter anti-malware solutions, content security and compliance. He joins NSS Labs after 9 years at Trend Micro where he held solution architect, technical marketing and sales engineering management roles. He also previously served as a system & security administrator for the United States Department of Justice and is the author of a dedicated dashboard for a major system management solution and developed a dedicated anti-spam lab.

NSS Labs continues to expand its analyst research capabilities through the addition of analysts such as Pirc and has plans to bring on more analysts throughout the year. To meet the ongoing business demand for network and security expertise, NSS also has plans to add new strategic research and testing capabilities, including breach detection (first public test results currently planned for release August 2013), cloud and virtualization, with plans for security information and event management (SIEM), risk, financial fraud and privacy in the future as well.

“We’re very excited to have John and Jason join the NSS team. Their real-world experience on the front lines at major security vendors combined with John’s in-depth research into cybercrime and the economics that fuel it and Jason’s background in anti-malware bring unique insight to the NSS team,” said Bob Walder, Chief Research Officer at NSS Labs. “NSS is known for providing our clients with reliable technology insights that are based in reality and vetted by our experts, and bringing new analysts of this caliber to our growing team is key to building our vision of what a modern analyst firm should be – real-world security expertise and research backed by hands-on testing.”