Babak Pasdar is an Iranian-American innovator, cyber security expert, author, and entrepreneur best known for his contributions in the areas of cloud-based security innovations and as a whistle blower on government warrantless wiretapping. Pasdar has been credited for being one of the leading innovators of Cloud Delivered Security via two technology startups he founded. IGX Global in 1997 and Bat Blue Networks (Now OPAQ Networks) in 2007, in both cases serving as CEO and CTO. Pasdar exited Bat Blue Networks in 2016 with the sale of his company to OPAQ Networks. He is now serving as founder, CEO and CTO of Acreto IoT Security, focused on addressing emerging security challenges posed by highly distributed and mobile purpose-built internet of things (IoT) devices that have seeped into every day life. Pasdar was selected as one of New York's Top Ten Startup Founders in 2017. Early years Pasdar the eldest of three sons was born in Kermanshah, Iran. His father was Koocheck Pasdar, a General in the Iranian Army under the Shah of Iran. His mother Simin Fardsavar-Pasdar was a school teacher from Shiraz, Iran. Pasdar is also related to actor Adrian Pasdar. His family fled Iran to the United States in 1979 to escape the revolution. Arriving to the U.S. under a tourist visa, his family's requests for political asylum were denied, driving a long process for the family to establish themselves legally and financially in the United States. Professional career Pasdar was an early entrepreneur, starting his first business while still in high school. At a time when computer memory chips were in significant demand with high prices, Pasdar purchased used mainframe computers at auctions and extracted their memory chips using special techniques he developed. Throughout his career he has been credited for evolving ahead of a constantly commoditizing technology market-space moving from harvesting memory chips, to building PCs, networking, multi-platform integration, Internet communications and eventually cyber security. In 1992, Pasdar discovered the Internet and quickly moved to start his first Internet Services Company where he developed experience and expertise in Internet Communications technologies. In 1995 while experimenting with unorthodox Internet communications, Pasdar inadvertently compromised the Microsoft corporation. This highlighted to Pasdar the importance of cyber security and how challenged the industry's approach was. In 1997, Pasdar founded IGX Global, a cyber security company delivering fully operationalized Security as-a-Service. He developed a reputation for effective handling of large-scale and complex