Profile
That experience is what forms his teaching philosophy. "I make it my teaching philosophy to constantly bring in new material into the classroom through my personal experiences and the successes and failures of those I've seen in the industry," says Robert. This augments the traditional classroom material students receive to ensure they get the most relevant and cutting-edge concepts in the industry. But Robert's real-world experience also keeps things interesting. "I enjoy telling and sharing in case studies and stories from the field, looping in bigger concepts into the technical material, and setting a humorous tone so that no matter the seriousness of the topic we all have fun together."
Robert got his start in information security making small control systems for humanitarian missions in places such as Cameroon. He joined the United States Air Force and became a cyberspace warfare operations officer tasked to the National Security Agency. In that role, he created and led a first of its kind mission identifying and analyzing states targeting ICS. For Robert, that intermixing of defense, intrusion analysis, and threat intelligence provided the ultimate thrill.
Robert has worked offense, defense, and intelligence in various government teams. "My time on the offense helped me better appreciate defense and how sometimes we simply get it wrong: defense is not necessarily harder than offense and there are many opportunities we have to defend and make the world a better place," he says.
Today he is the author and instructor for SANS ICS515: ICS Visibility, Detection, and Response, the industry's first and only incident response and threat hunting class for ICS,FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence, the industry standard course for threat intelligence training, and co-author on ICS310: ICS/OT Fundamentals. "The SANS family is amazing, the students are world class, and teaching is what keeps me constantly refreshed and excited in the industry."