IT security firm promotes partner

TAMPA — Sunera LLC has promoted Robert Carr, formerly the director overseeing its attack and penetration testing team, to a partner in the firm.

He will continue to work with Partners Andrew Cannata, Christie Verscharen and David Hollis to lead the Tampa-based information security firm. Companies hire the firm to probe their computer systems for vulnerabilities. The goal is to allow companies to find and fix those security problems before they are hit by a real computer hack.

Carr has been with the company for more than eight years. For the past three years, he has overseen the vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, social engineering and physical security projects. A penetration test helps firms assess how easily hackers could attack their IT systems to steal data or hurt their functionality.

Most notably, he led ethical hacking attacks to test the security of some of the nation's largest retailers and financial services firms.

“At Sunera, Robert has helped build one of the most technically sophisticated and innovative [penetration testing] groups in the country,” Peter Armstrong, Sunera's managing director, says in a press release. “His combination of technical ability, managerial skills and dedication to client service will be instrumental in the continued growth of Sunera's information security practice.”

As a partner, Carr will continue to be responsible for operations, staff management and methodology development. He will also continue to represent the company at conferences, conventions and professional organizations.