In 1998, Roesch, then 28 and an engineer at telecom company GTE-I, created an open-source program called Snort for detecting intrusions into computer networks. Today, he sheepishly acknowledges that he's a multimillionaire, having sold Sourcefire, the company he created to sell add-ons to Snort, for $225 million to security software leader Check Point. (The deal is expected to be finalized before the end of the first quarter 2006.)
Free code for sale: the new business of open source