Sean Mitchell is the Information Security Manager at Children's Hospital and Health Center. Previous IT positions he has held include Operations Manager, Network Administrator, and Project Manager. Sean currently holds the GSNA, GCIH, GSEC, GGSC, CISSP, CISA, CISM, PMP, ABCP, IAM, and IEM certifications. Sean has a Master of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Information and Decision Systems from San Diego State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, San Diego.
Stephen Northcutt
Stephen Northcutt founded the GIAC certification and currently serves as president of the SANS Technology Institute, a postgraduate level IT security college (www.sans.edu). Stephen is author/coauthor of Incident Handling Step-by-Step, Intrusion Signatures and Analysis, Inside Network Perimeter Security 2nd Edition, IT Ethics Handbook, SANS Security Essentials, SANS Security Leadership Essentials and Network Intrusion Detection 3rd edition. He was the original author of the Shadow Intrusion Detection system before accepting the position of chief for information warfare at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Stephen is a graduate of Mary Washington College. Before entering the field of computer security, he worked as a Navy helicopter search and rescue crewman, white water raft guide, chef, martial arts instructor, cartographer, and network designer.
Since 2007 Stephen has conducted over 34 in-depth interviews with leaders in the security industry, from CEOs of security product companies to the most well-known practitioners in order to research the competencies required to be a successful leader in the security field. He maintains the SANS Leadership Laboratory, where research on these competencies is posted as well as SANS Security Musings. He is the lead author for Execubytes, a monthly newsletter that covers both technical and pragmatic information for security managers. He leads the Management 512 Alumni forum, where hundreds of security managers post questions. He is the lead author/instructor for Management 512: SANS Security Leadership Essentials for Managers, a prep course for the GSLC certification that meets all levels of requirements for DoD Security Managers per DoD 8570, and he also is the lead author/instructor for Management 421: SANS Leadership and Management Competencies. Stephen also blogs at the SANS Security Leadership blog.
Mike Poor
Mike is a founder and senior security analyst for the DC firm InGuardians LLC. In his recent past life he has worked for Sourcefire as a research engineer and for the SANS Institute leading their Intrusion Analysis Team. As a consultant, Mike conducts forensic analysis, penetration tests, vulnerability assessments, security audits, and architecture reviews. His primary job focus, however, is in intrusion detection, response, and mitigation. Mike currently holds both GSEC and GCIA certifications and is an expert in network engineering and systems, network and Web administration. Mike is an author of the international best selling Snort 2.1 book from Syngress and is a handler for the Internet Storm Center.
David Rice
David Rice is an internationally recognized cyber security expert, consulting director for policy reform at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, and author of the critically acclaimed book Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software. Mr. Rice is a key figure shaping the discussion of cyber security, and his work impacts both U.S. and European cyber security policy. As director of The Monterey Group, a private consulting firm, Mr. Rice advises a variety of clients on a range of issues, including cyber strategy development and execution, corporate cyber risk management, cyber security metrics, identity management, and secure software development practices.
Marcus Sachs
Marcus Sachs serves as Executive Director of Government Affairs for National Security Policy at Verizon in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Verizon in August 2007, he was the deputy director of SRI International's Computer Science Laboratory. Marcus has served as the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center since 2003, and is an internationally recognized computer security expert. He brings over 26 years of professional experience to SANS including 20 years of active military service as an officer in the United States Army and two years of national cyberspace security policy development as a Presidential appointee to the National Security Council staff in the George W. Bush administration. Marcus was the first cyber security official assigned to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 where he developed the initial concept and strategy for the creation of the United States Computer Emergency Response Team. He was also a founding member of the Defense Department's Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense, created in 1998 as the first US military organization designed to fight foreign threats in cyberspace. A graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, Marcus also holds a Masters degree in Computer Science with a concentration in Information Security, a Masters degree in Science and Technology Commercialization, and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy with a concentration in Science and Technology. Marcus is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Ed Skoudis
Ed Skoudis is a founder and senior security consultant with InGuardians. Ed's expertise includes hacker attacks and defenses, the information security industry, and computer privacy issues, with over fifteen years of experience in information security. Ed authored and regularly teaches the SANS courses on network penetration testing (Security 560) and incident response (Security 504), helping over three thousand information security professionals each year improve their skills and abilities to defend their networks. He has performed numerous security assessments; conducted exhaustive anti-virus, anti-spyware, Virtual Machine, and IPS research; and responded to computer attacks for clients in financial, high technology, healthcare, and other industries.
Ed conducted a demonstration of hacker techniques against financial institutions for the United States Senate and is a frequent speaker on issues associated with hacker tools and defenses. He has published numerous articles on these topics as well as the Prentice Hall best sellers Counter Hack Reloaded and Malware: Fighting Malicious Code. Ed was also awarded 2004-2009 Microsoft MVP awards for Windows Server Security and is an alumnus of the Honeynet Project. Previous to InGuardians, Ed served as a security consultant with International Network Services (INS), Global Integrity, Predictive Systems, SAIC, and Bell Communications Research (Bellcore). Ed also blogs about command line tips.
James Tarala
James Tarala is a principal consultant with Enclave Security and is based out of Venice, Florida. He is a regular speaker and senior instructor with the SANS Institute as well as a courseware author and editor for many SANS auditing and security courses. As a consultant, he has spent the past few years architecting large enterprise IT security and infrastructure architectures, specifically working with many Microsoft-based directory services, e-mail, terminal services, and wireless technologies. He has also spent a large amount of time consulting with organizations to assist them in their security management, operational practices, and regulatory compliance issues, and he often times performs independent security audits and assists internal audit groups to develop their internal audit programs. James completed his undergraduate studies at Philadelphia Biblical University and his graduate work at the University of Maryland. He holds numerous professional certifications.