Jeffrey Shearer

Certified InstructorIANS Research Faculty Member at IANS

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Industrial Control Systems Security

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Jeffrey Shearer

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About Jeffrey Shearer

Jeffrey Shearer approaches ICS cybersecurity from a direction few instructors can claim: forty years of designing, architecting, and implementing industrial and distributed control systems before ever stepping into a security classroom. As a SANS Certified Instructor and co-author of SANS ICS612: ICS Cybersecurity In-Depth and SANS ICS310: ICS Cybersecurity Foundations, he teaches students learning to protect the very kinds of systems he spent his career building, across automotive, food and beverage, mining, oil and gas, water and wastewater, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. He currently owns Gray Man Cyber, where he works with clients across industrial sectors.

Much of Shearer's career was spent with Rockwell Automation and various OEMs, accumulating experience across nearly every phase of the automation lifecycle. Unlike most ICS security professionals, his foundation includes mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems alongside the automation technologies that control them. A career highlight is research that led to an advanced control algorithm for managing hydraulic pressure and velocity profiles via PLC, work that resulted in his first patent and influenced Rockwell Automation's specialized I/O module development. When he discusses securing a PLC or HMI in the course, he understands what is inside it and how it was designed to behave.

Shearer holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications, credentials that reflect both his security depth and his experience managing complex technical programs. He is also a faculty member of the SANS Technology Institute, an NSA-designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. He came to the SANS instructor community after taking SANS courses himself and describes the certification process as rigorous but worthwhile. His course content is built on a conviction that ICS security training must include direct, hands-on engagement with real devices, not abstract concepts alone.

Shearer's teaching philosophy is straightforward: to secure something, you need to understand what it is and how it works. In the class, he bridges the ICS knowledge gap by pairing digestible instruction with hands-on access to real equipment, watching students tackle increasingly complex problems as the course advances. Outside of work, he holds a private pilot license and even rebuilt a 1972 Piper Cherokee 140, getting it re-certified by the FAA. He is also a certified martial arts instructor.