"The Dragon Research Group (DRG) is a volunteer research organization dedicated to further understanding of online criminality and to provide actionable intelligence for the benefit of the entire Internet community."
The DRG is a not-for-profit, non-revenue generating entity, comprised of a geographically dispersed set of trusted volunteers who are passionate about making the Internet more secure. Selected volunteers are part of a group that will have access to the data and tools that can really make a difference in the fight against online crime. Volunteers may take on any number of roles including but not limited to analyst, tool maker, administrator or investigator.
We produce and support security-related tools, analysis and insight for the Internet community. For example, The DRG Distro enables the raw intel that forms the basis of the SSH Password Authentication Report. At the end of every week, we provide a concise list of Weekend Reads that information security professionals can enjoy on their days off. We administer awards, such as the Security Innovation Grant that help provide valuable resources to those that can effectively put them to use for the good of the community. We develop and maintain software tools that are freely available to the community through our public Dragon Research Group GitHub repository. Those are just a few of the things we do. What else can we do? We'd love to hear what you think is missing.
DRG volunteers come from around the globe with various backgrounds and experiences. DRG volunteers past and present have agreed to have their name published publicly as shown below. For additional questions about the volunteers or to confirm the status of a volunteer please direct all inquiries to dragon@dragonresearchgroup.org.
Volunteers: Aaron Allen, Pedro Bueno, Paul Dokas, Alexandre Dulaunoy, Greg Feezel, Russell Fulton, John Kristoff, Renato Otranto Jr., Jacomo Piccolinni, James Pichardo, Jason Ross, Will Urbanski, Italo Valcy, Scott Vowels and Mike Watson.
Alumni: Thomas Bryan, Chris Camacho, Ronaldo Castro de Vasconcellos, Dave Dobrotka, Jason Eaton, Levi Gundert, Marius Gutowski, Seth Hall, Han Lievens, Dean Pemberton, Charlie Reddington, Justin Sterling, Paul Tatarsky, Joel Yonts and Bojan Zdrnja.
The DRG Advisory Council is made up of three industry experts, the DRG leadership team and two representatives from Team Cymru that provide guidance, advice and feedback on DRG activities. The DRG Advisory Council currently consists of Roland Dobbins, Greg Feezel, Patrick Green, John Kristoff, Jacomo Piccolini, Joe St Sauver and Jeff Vosburg.
All DRG volunteer candidates go through a formal hiring process, which includes rigorous vetting, interviews and candidate questionnaires. The following minimal requirements must be met before a candidate is invited to join DRG as a volunteer:
- Consensus from the existing DRG that a candidate is suitable for DRG.
- A candidate must be committed to dedicate 20 hours per month for DRG.
- A candidate demonstrates the ability to take on tasks and projects with little direction, or the DRG has the resources and desire to manage the candidate with high potential as a fast study and innate ability to succeed.
- A candidate will have a well defined role and task list to work on upon joining.
- A candidate must be in the DRG chain of trust directly or through a positive reference that is in the DRG chain of trust.
The DRG issues a public open candidate volunteer hiring announcement on average once a year due to the natural turn over in the DRG volunteer pool. At other times the DRG may contact candidates on file when a specific need arises. While we may not be formally hiring at any one moment, candidates are welcome and encouraged to apply at any time. See our How to Apply to be a DRG Volunteer page for additional details and the current open candidate volunteer hiring schedule.
Individuals who are interested in bolstering their future candidacy to the DRG, improving their chain of trust with the DRG or simply looking to participate without the time commitment of a volunteer may be invited to contribute independent work such as DRG Distro modules, tools, white papers or analysis. Contributors must be able to work well on their own with little guidance from DRG. Contact us at dragon@dragonresearchgroup.org to inquire about contributor opportunities.
Team Cymru Research NFP is a registered not-for-profit entity in the U.S. state of Illinois and an official US Federal 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Team Cymru Research NFP is the primary sponsoring organization for the DRG. Team Cymru Research NFP plays a facilitator role for the DRG and assists the DRG with acquiring resources.
Please visit Team Cymru's Home Page to learn all about Team Cymru.
The DRG never divulges the identities of the partners we work with and we never share a partner's raw data with anyone outside of the the DRG. Partners retain full ownership of any contributed data and they dictate the restrictions on its use. All DRG volunteers adhere to a simple set of DRG Operating Guidelines and abide by all mutually agreeable non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) partners may enter into with the DRG.
Nobody. The DRG does not sell anything and it does not take in any revenue. Naturally, everything that the DRG produces is strictly for non-commercial use only. Under no condition should you have had to pay for DRG derived output either in part or in whole from anyone else.
The DRG doesn't compare itself directly to any other volunteer group, but acknowledges that there are a number of very talented and motivated ventures out there. Sometimes our activities may overlap and whenever possible the DRG will cooperate with anyone who has similar goals and holds a high bar for the integrity of its operations. The DRG is backed by a well established and federally recognized non-profit organization, Team Cymru Research NFP. Through Team Cymru Research NFP, the DRG is in an ideal position to take advantage of a number of unique resources and partnerships. The DRG spans the globe and tries to bring insight and assistance to the world Internet community in matters of information security.
First, thank you for asking! In addition to people time, the DRG is interested in data, connectivity and select resources such as IP address space, domain name services, hardware, virtual machines, data center or rack space and more. We can also accept monetary donations via PayPal, which can be used to help support such things as speaking engagements, hosting and the production of promotional materials. Donations are tax deductible in the U.S. For tax purposes, donations will be invoiced to Team Cymru Research NFP, but the entire amount will be earmarked for the DRG if initiated from the PayPal button on our home page. If there is something else you think the DRG could make use of, please contact a Dragon Research Group representative at dragon@dragonresearchgroup.org.