Roelof Temmingh is not only an actual hacker, he is an actual serial entrepreneur, although he probably prefers the connotations of the word “hacker” to the term “serial entrepreneur”.
He had completed his electronic engineering at the University of Pretoria in 1995, joined Nanoteq in 1996, and worked there until February 2000. SensePost was acquired by SecureData, which Orange bought in 2019 to increase its international reach and expertise in cybersecurity. It rebranded to Orange Cyberdefense in 2020.about how he came to create Maltego and launch the company behind it, Paterva, Temmingh explained that he left SensePost in 2006 because he wanted to pursue this new idea.
However, the session was a major letdown. Fewer than 100 people were in the audience, and nobody really seemed to care about Maltego’s big announcements.In hindsight, Temmingh said selling the company was a mistake as it changed the dynamics within the organisation.Temmingh only completed his exit in 2017.They initially sold a 25% stake in Paterva to SecureData UK, the same company that had bought SensePost.
When asked whether the information security landscape had turned out the way he expected since founding SensePost in 2000, Temmingh said he could only comment on the security assessment and penetration testing aspects. “But then again — that’s what you’d expect from an old guy mumbling about ‘the good old days,’ right?”“I was there when the boom started, and we all kind of figured it out as we went along,” he said.