I work at the intersection of cyber defense, AI safety, and emerging risk, where the threats are converging and the playbooks are still being written.

My career has taken me from the Marine Corps to NSA, U.S. Cyber Command, the U.S. House of Representatives, Mandiant, and Netflix. Across every role, one throughline: understanding adversaries, building high-trust teams, and translating complex problems into strategies leaders can act on.

Today, I advise organizations, governments, and research institutions on AI governance, agentic threat preparedness, and unifying safety and security into a single discipline. I contribute to global standards efforts including the EU AI Act (via OWASP AI) and lead executive education on cybersecurity and AI strategy at SANS.

If you’re navigating the future of AI risk or security strategy, let’s connect.

Chris Cochran

As a U.S. Marine who spent years working alongside special operations teams, I learned that different missions require radically different mindsets.

Everybody loves the Navy SEAL archetype: aggressive, adaptive, and masters of improvisation.

But if you deploy AI agents with that mindset, you are inviting disaster. AI doesn’t have the judgment to improvise. When it tries, it makes mistakes.

In high-stakes business environments, you don't need the "bang" of chaos; you need the "whisper" of control. You need more of a Delta Force methodology.

In my latest article, I break down why AI requires more determinism, and less heroism, and introduce CONTROL for governing agentic AI.

Read the full strategy below. 👇

Field CISO & VP, AI Security @ SANS | Bridging Cyber Defense and Frontier AI Risk | Ex-NSA, Netflix, Mandiant | US Marine Veteran

Let me set the tone clearly: This is not a debate about which group is "better." Both are elite. Both accomplish the impossible. As a US Marine, I res

Open article: Why You Need to Manage AI Agents Like Delta Force, Not Navy SEALs by Chris Cochran • 4 min read

Why You Need to Manage AI Agents Like Delta Force, Not Navy SEALs

What is your current view of AI in cybersecurity? I bet its a mixed bag. 

Foster Nethercott wants to hear directly from you. 

Make your voice heard. 

Just want the TLDR? Rob T. Lee and Foster will be hosting a livestream July 15th to cover the insights. 

Links to both in the comments. 

SANS Institute

Phillip Wylie

Phillip Wylie is a cybersecurity professional with over 28 years of industry experience in IT and cybersecurity. He is also a former Dallas College Adjunct Instructor and the founder of The Pwn School Project and DEFCON Group 940. Phillip has diverse experience in multiple cybersecurity disciplines, including network security, application security, and pentesting. As an offensive security professional with over a decade of experience, he has conducted pentests of networks, Wi-Fi networks, applications, red team operations, and social engineering.

Phillip's contributions to the cybersecurity industry extend beyond his work as a pentester. He is the concept creator and co-author of “The Pentester BluePrint: Starting a Career as an Ethical Hacker,” a highly regarded book inspired by a lecture he presented to his class at Dallas College, which later became a conference talk. Phillip hosts “The Phillip Wylie Show” and "The Hacker Factory Podcast," where he interviews guests on how they got started in cybersecurity and their advice for aspiring cybersecurity professionals. Additionally, he is a frequent conference speaker, workshop instructor, and mentor.

Member of the Board of Advisors

To help celebrate Arcanum Information Security's two-year anniversary, Jason Haddix gave me 5 codes good for any Arcanum course to give away!

Winners will be announced on 1/22. 

👍 1 Like = 1 Entry!
♻️ 1 Share = 2 Entries!

Penetration Tester | Instructor | Keynote & International Speaker | Best Selling Author | Podcast Host of Phillip Wylie Show, & Simply Offensive

Tina Shakour has been affected by layoffs. If you have any openings, please reach out to her.

Senior Technical Solutions Manager | Network Security, Threat Detection and Incident Response, Secure GenAI

Next week will mark my 5 years at AWS - however, I was notified today my role was impacted in the layoffs today. I’ve met amazing people here and learned so much - I am grateful to the people who hired me, mentored me, and supported me!

I’m looking for my new “Day 1” - let’s chat! 


💼 I’m looking for Solutions Architect, Cyber Security Specialist, GenAI Security Specialist, or Technical Delivery Manager roles.

Looking for Solutions Architect, Cyber Security Specialist, Technical Delivery Manager and Cloud Architect roles

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The Battle

Chris Cochran

Phillip Wylie

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The Battle

Chris Cochran

Phillip Wylie

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Chris Cochran's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreChris Cochran's LinkedIn Performance