Dr. Margaret Smith is a US Army Cyber Officer and Army Planner at Department of the Army, Military Operations, and an academic who holds Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration.

Dr. Smith’s research and teaching interests are focused on social media and the effects of disinformation campaigns as a national security challenge and the geopolitics of military cyberspace operations. She is a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative and graduate faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park where she teaches courses on near-peer and strategic competition for the Terrorism Studies program that investigates the geopolitics of the modern world and the tensions and relationships that shape state behavior, conflict, competition, and cooperation. Finally, Dr. Smith direct’s the Cyber Project for the Irregular Warfare Initiative, serving as the editor and curator of the organization’s cyber-focused content.

In her military career, Dr. Smith served as a researcher at the Army Cyber Institute and assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy, teaching courses on American politics, cyberspace operations, and her elective, “Politics and the Internet” that investigated how citizen-government relationships have changed with the internet.

Ross J. Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on security. He is one of the pioneers of the economics of information security, peer-to-peer systems, hardware tamper-resistance and API security. Furthermore, he was one of the designers of the international standards for prepayment electricity metering and power line communications, and was one of the inventors of the AES finalist encryption algorithm Serpent. In 2015, he won the Lovelace Medal, Britain’s top award in computing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Ross J. Anderson leads the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, which collects and analyzes large datasets about online criminal activity. He is known to all security professionals as the author of the textbook “Security Engineering – A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems”.

Max Smeets is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich and Director of the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative. He is the author of ‘No Shortcuts: Why States Struggle to Develop a Military Cyber-​Force’ (Oxford University Press & Hurst Publishers, 2022) and co-​editor of ‘Deter, Disrupt or Deceive? Assessing Cyber Conflict as an Intelligence Contest’ (Georgetown University Press, 2023) and ‘Cyberspace and Instability’ (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).

Max is an affiliate at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and an associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He also lectures on cyber warfare and defense as part of the Senior Officer course at the NATO Defense College in Rome. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Stanford University CISAC and a College Lecturer at Keble College, University of Oxford.

“Cyber Persistence Theory” – a paradigm-shifting book that has already transformed how governments approach the cyber realm. We are delighted to have the authors as our guests on the No Name Podcast!

Michael Fischerkeller is a research staff member in the Information, Technology and Systems Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. Michael has spent his entire professional career supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Combatant and Multi-National Force commanders, and the Intelligence Community. His areas of expertise are cyber strategy, strategic / operational concept development, and analysis / assessment.

Richard J. Harknett is Professor and Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati. He also co-directs the Ohio Cyber Range Institute, a state-wide organization supporting education, workforce, economic, and research development in cybersecurity. He served as Scholar-in-Residence at US Cyber Command and National Security Agency and has held two Fulbright Professor positions.

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by The Economist. He is the author of over one dozen books — including his latest, A Hacker’s Mind — as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter “Crypto-Gram” and his blog “Schneier on Security” are read by over 250,000 people. He has testified before Congress, is a frequent guest on television and radio, has served on several government committees, and is regularly quoted in the press. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School; a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and AccessNow; and an Advisory Board Member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.

Sherrod is a long time information security and threat intelligence leader. She was selected as Cybersecurity woman of the year in 2022 and Cybersecurity PR Spokesperson of the year for 2021. Her career in cybersecurity spans 19 years with prior roles including VP Threat research at Proofpoint, leading Security Business Services at Nexum, senior solutions engineer for Symantec, senior security consultant for Secureworks, and senior network security analyst for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Sherrod is a frequently cited threat intelligence expert in media including televised appearances on the BBC news and commentary in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, New York Times, and more. She is a well known public speaker, having presented at Black Hat, RSA conference, RMISC, BrunchCon, and others. In her personal time, Sherrod does pilates, loves to go to live music shows, and spends time with her rescue dog Boris Karloff.

Gavin Wilde is a senior fellow in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he applies his expertise on Russia and information warfare to examine the strategic challenges posed by cyber and influence operations, propaganda, and emerging technologies. Gavin is also an Adjunct Professor at The Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies.

National Cyber Director of Estonia, Liisa Past (MA) focuses on protecting the infrastructure of democracy in the digital world and securing our increasingly electronic way of life. As the CISO of the IT and Development Centre at the Estonian Ministry of the Interior, she was responsible for mainstreaming information security practices across technology that saves lives in homeland security, including ISO 27001 compliance, introducing a SOC to consolidate numerous information sources.

Dr. Christopher Ahlberg is the CEO of Recorded Future, the world’s largest intelligence company, and Chairman of Hult International Business School.