An IT enthusiast who had childhood dreams of becoming a hacker, Chris Dale’s path to a career in information security was set after his older brother hacked him. Today Chris uses his hacker skills to demonstrate risk via Offensive Services and Incident Response.

Chris began his career in 2009 working for a large Norwegian ISP, doing development and IT operations. “I really learned about how all things interconnect and work,” he says. Since then he’s worked for multiple companies in important roles, and his last job was the head of cyber security at a 60 man Cyber Security consulting firm. Here he managed several teams, including pen testing and incident response. In 2020, Chris founded his own company, River Security, specializing in offensive services, attack surface management and cyber consulting.

A certified instructor for SANS and a SANS Analyst, Chris teaches SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling and SEC599: Defeating Advanced Adversaries – Purple Team Tactics & Kill Chain Defenses, and is co-author of SEC550: Cyber Deception – Attack Detection, Disruption and Active Defense.

When alerts become opportunities – Planning and building an Offensive SOC

Why do we have penetration tests once a year? Why are penetration testers struggling to be agile, still working in traditional project-based types of engagements? In order to disrupt nation-states, cybercriminals and other threat actors, the “game” needs to change. Attackers are agile, always-on and leveraging opportunities as they happen, while penetration testers struggle to keep up. It’s like a cheetah fighting a turtle. My talk addresses these points and proposes actionable insights on how to keep up via Offensive Security Operations Centers.