Tony Cole is the CTO at Attivo Networks, the leader in the Cyber Deception space working to deceive, detect, and defend enterprises from cyber-attacks.
Prior to joining Attivo Networks, Mr. Cole held executive positions at FireEye, McAfee and Symantec. He’s retired from the U.S. Army, where he worked in intelligence, communications, cryptography, around the world including building out the Network Security Services at the Pentagon.
He previously advised Wall Street on security technology and was on the advisory board for Secure Elements prior to its sale to Fortinet. Mr. Cole has served on the US President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee’s IoT security subcommittee. He also served on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC-V). Mr. Cole is on the Board of Directors for Silent Circle, an innovative secure communications company. In 2017, he was elected by (ISC)2 constituents to serve on their Board of Directors and was also appointed by the NASA Administrator to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). He is a former president of the Information Systems Security Association — District of Columbia.
Mr. Cole speaks at security conferences across the globe such as the G20, RSA Conference, World Economic Forum, Munich Security Conference, CyberTech, and has been a contributing author to the SANS Institutes’ publications and classes. He’s been featured online and on TV and radio, such as CNN, BBC, Politico, the Hill, Washington Business Journal, ABC, USA Today, and the Washington Times.
In 2014, he received the Government Computer News Industry IT Executive of the Year award, and in 2015 he was inducted into the Wash 100 by Executive Mosaic as one of the most influential executives impacting Government. Mr. Cole is also a volunteer member of the WhiteHat USA Board, a charity benefiting Children’s National Medical Center. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer networking and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
