That paper is from 1999, but Bro probably predates that; I talked to Vern in person about Bro when we wrote our 1998 "Insertion Evasion" paper --- Vern had independently discovered many of the same design flaws we did and captured them in the Bro paper.

Vern Paxson is extraordinarily serious; he was part of the LBL network research group team, alongside Van Jacobsen and Steve McCanne and Sally Floyd. That was one of the most famous network research teams in... well, the history of the Internet.