Faculty Directory

John Visneski leads information security for MGM Studios.  In this capacity, he and his team are responsible for security operations, engineering, GRC and data protection across the business.  He also leads content security efforts for the full development lifecycle and supply chain of film and television production at the studio.

Prior to joining MGM, John was the CISO at Accolade, a publicly traded personalized healthcare company.  In this capacity he led post-IPO compliance efforts, as well as leading security integration efforts for two major acquisitions.  John also built the security and privacy programs at The Pokémon Company International.  During his time with the organization, he was responsible for the protection of corporate information technology systems, customer facing platforms, applications, and products.  He also developed the company data privacy strategy to meet the demands of emerging global privacy regulations.

John started his career serving over ten years in the United States Air Force as a cyberspace operations officer.  His responsibilities while in the Air Force spanned various leadership and management positions, including leading strategic engagements for the Air Force CIO; writing policy and guidance for Air Force requirements and acquisition; directing operations for a worldwide network within the intelligence community; and directing communications and information technology in deployed environments.  John served multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, the most recent of which was as the joint communications director for the NATO Rule of Law Field Force Afghanistan.  His time in the Air Force culminated in a position as the cybersecurity advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force, located at the Pentagon, Washington D.C.  He currently resides in Seattle, WA with his wife Althea and their dog Ben.

Currently consulting, Mike was the head of cyber security at 2 of Canada's iconic companies, and also served as CIO at one of them. Mike's scope included security of application development, of IT systems, and of global cloud services, as well as compliance for the corporation and customer services.

 Tarah is the Founder and CEO of the cybersecurity compliance company Red Queen Dynamics. She also serves as the Senior Fellow for Global Cyber Policy at Council on Foreign Relations.  Tarah has spoken and testified on information security at the United States Senate, European Union and at multiple governmental and industry conferences.
Prior to launching Red Queen Dynamics, Tarah was the Head of Offensive Security & Technical Data Privacy at Splunk and Senior Director of Engineering and Principal Security Advocate at Symantec Website Security.

Justin is a Vice President at In-Q-Tel, a non-profit strategic investor serving the Intelligence Community, where he oversees a portfolio of innovative cybersecurity companies solving complex challenges at the intersection of National Security and Commercial Industry. He has also led research and technical diligence exploration for developmental investments that shape Digital Forensics, Behavioral Analytics, Endpoint Protection, Orchestration and Automation, and Software Assurance early-stage startups.

Jake Williams (aka MalwareJake) is a seasoned security researcher with decades of experience in technology and security. Jake is a former startup founder, former senior SANS instructor and course author, and an intelligence community and military veteran. He loves forensics, incident response, cyber threat intelligence and offensive methodologies. Today, Jake is an IANS faculty member, an independent security consultant, and is performing security-focused research to benefit the broader community. He has had the honor of twice winning the DoD Cyber Crime Center (DC3) annual digital forensics challenge. You may also know Jake from one of his many conference talks, webcasts, media appearances or his postings about cybersecurity.

Jamie is currently a threat researcher at Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, where he helps lead tailored, tactical and strategic intelligence deliveries. Prior to Unit 42, Jamie was a cyber operations engineer for the MITRE Corporation where he led development of MITRE ATT&CK® for Enterprise and worked with amazing people on various other exciting efforts involving security operations and research, mostly focused on adversary emulation and behavior-based detections. 

Jason is the EVP and Chief Information Security Officer at Fidelity Investments. Formerly, he served as the Chief Security Officer at USAA and Global Chief Information Security Officer and CIO of the Cybersecurity & Technology Controls division at JPMorgan Chase. He is an experienced leader with both strong technical skills and wide-ranging risk management experience. Jason served as CISO at US Bancorp where he was responsible for enterprise-wide customer authentication products and provided accountability for all information security controls in the company. Prior to his role at US Bancorp, Jason was the Senior Vice President and Cyber Threat Prevention Services Executive at Bank of America and led a team who provided global information security risk prevention and deterrence services.

Josh Woodruff is the Founder and CEO of Massive Scale Consulting, partnering with organizations to embrace AI, adopt Zero Trust security, and leverage cloud strategies for secure digital transformation. Josh also co-leads the Cloud Security Alliance Zero Trust Working Group. He has over 25 years of executive leadership in cybersecurity and technology strategy across innovative startups, technology giants, and global enterprises in biotech, aerospace, finance, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure. His background as both CIO and CISO enables him to align advanced technical solutions with strategic business outcomes.

Joe, the co-founder and CEO of Seiso LLC, brings 28+ years of IT and cybersecurity experience to the industry's forefront. At Seiso, a cybersecurity engineering firm based in Pittsburgh, Joe and his team work hands-on with customers, implementing modern security and compliance solutions tailored to their unique needs. His expertise spans information security governance, risk management, compliance, and aligning security programs with industry frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, and 800-x. Joe's previous roles include enterprise-level CISO positions, overseeing cybersecurity, privacy, business continuity, and physical security.

Philip is senior vice president of an offensive security research group at a multinational, Fortune 500 financial services company. He is a leading expert and thought leader in mainframe cyber security with a special focus on the z/OS platform. Philip has built mainframe security programs for multiple Fortune 100 organizations using both vendor and public toolsets. Philip also develops information security coursework to educate the next generation of practitioners, raises awareness about mainframe security, and encourages more organizations to effectively prioritize their risk profiles.

Sounil is a member of the IANS Faculty, and has over 30 years of hands-on experience creating, breaking and fixing computer and network systems. He is the creator of the Cyber Defense Matrix and the DIE Triad, guest lectures at Carnegie Mellon, and is a senior fellow at the National Security Institute, and advises many security startups. He’s the former Chief Security Scientist at Bank of America, a recipient of the SANS Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, and a frequent speaker at major information security conferences.

Jon Zeolla is the founder and CEO of Zenable, a tech company that uses a Governance-first, fully automated approach to streamline cloud-native technology adoption and security. Jon aims to eliminate corporate toil and inefficiency by automating governance and simplifying data gathering and analysis. He’s also a founder of Seiso where they partner with tech companies to implement low-friction security and compliance. His work at Seiso earned him the 2021 Start-Up Innovator of the Year Award.