NET WORTH: $840 million +2%

LAST YEAR: $825 million

AGE: 63

RESIDENCE: Los Angeles

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Software

THE MONEY: National Center for Crisis and Continuity Coordination, the secretive Canadian entrepreneur’s security company, likely saw minimal growth given budget constraints on military and public safety customers.

BUZZ: The computer engineer’s NC4 makes security software seen as critical for counterterrorism. It’s the kind of “Mission: Impossible” technology that allows law enforcement to aggregate and analyze information from multiple surveillance systems. Chernick and his wife, Joyce, try to fly under the radar, but have been documented contributors to Republican candidates, Israeli charities and political groups. He was a funder of conservative blog publisher Pajamas Media, and she gave $2,500 last summer to the World Alliance for Israel Political Action Committee. The Chernicks were vilified in the liberal blogosphere last year for helping fund Jihad Watch, an organization opposed to the construction of a mosque near ground zero in New York. Chernick pocketed $641 million in 2004 from IBM’s purchase of his Candle Corp., a software firm that integrated corporate computer networks. NC4 was a spinoff.