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TIS - Technology History Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

spongebuddies: I am saddened to have to archive this cache. It was our first hide. It was hidden where Mrs. SB and I met. And it was near a little gem of technology history that will now be that much dimmer.

However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the two property owners near this cache are not interested in folks visiting to find it. A No Trespassing sign facing away from the usual parking lot went up about a year ago, and now one facing the parking lot is on a chain hanging between two poles making it very hard to access the path you need to get to GZ.

So, unless we can revive it after talking to the Business Center management, it will have to stay in the archived state.

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Hidden : 8/2/2008
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


This cache will take you to an out-of-the-way office building that used to be the Global Headquarters for Trusted Information Systems, Inc. Those of you who have been in the computer security field for a "few" years, especially in the Federal Government, will probably recognize the name. During the 1990's, it was well-known for various computer security advancements. These include the freely available Firewall Toolkit, the commercial firewall "Gauntlet", Trusted Mach, S/MIME, SNMP, DNS Security and Domain and Type Enforcement.

The cache is hidden near the parking lot, but is on private property. Permission has been given by the property owner, Steve Walker, who happens to be the founder of TIS. It is a micro, so only has room for a log (BYOP!).

TIS was founded in 1983 in Steve Walker's basement, at the time about a mile away. After some time, the offices moved to the small house in front of the office building which now houses a child care center. The company then expanded into, first one, and then two, trailers. With further success and growth, a building was built to house TIS in 1988. That building was then expanded in 1996, to become the building that you see today. TIS also occupied the historic house on the other side of the Post Office (a sidewalk connects the two buildings). While the building was being expanded, TIS also leased space in a building in nearby Lisbon.

When the Executive Office of the President debuted an email server for mail to whitehouse.gov in June, 1993, the actual server resided in this building, with the emails to the President, etc., printed out and couriered to the White House. The EOP selected TIS to manage the launch of this service due to their experience with networking security. It continued to run here until January, 1995.

TIS went public in 1996 and was sold to Network Associates in 1998 for $350M. TIS never took any venture capital and so the bulk of the sale was shared by the employees.

At the time of its sale, TIS had offices around the world and employed 350 people.

NAI moved the ex-TIS employees from this building in 2002, thus ending this chapter of the long history of computer security research at this site. A venture capital firm, run by Steve Walker, that invests in early-stage Internet and software technology companies currently occupies a part of the building. Also, Platform Logic, a developer of an Intrusion Detection System, which also employed a number of ex-TIS employees, had a presence in the building for a short period after NAI moved out.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)