Vice Adm. Craig A. "Clap" Clapperton is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering. He was commissioned in 1989 and designated a naval flight officer in 1991. In 2008, he earned a Master of Arts in National Strategy and Security Studies from the Naval War College with highest distinction and was a member of the college’s elite Stockdale group. He is a distinguished graduate of the Navy Nuclear Power Training Command and completed nuclear power training in 2010. In August 2022, Clapperton assumed duties as commander, Fleet Cyber Command, Navy Space Command, U.S. 10th Fleet, and Joint Force Headquarters Cyber (Navy).

Clapperton completed operational flying tours in both the A-6E Intruder and EA-6B Prowler, and has amassed over 2,800 hours in the Intruder, Prowler and EA-18 G Growler. His squadron assignments include tours with the Attack Squadron 34 (VA-34) Blue Blasters, Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ-139) Cougars, and Wizards of VAQ-133.

Clapperton commanded the Shadowhawks of VAQ-141, the U.S. 6th Fleet and NATO command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), and Carrier Strike Group Twelve. Additionally, he served as executive officer aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). During his command tours, his ships and squadrons supported Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, and Inherent Resolve, and operated in the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean Seas and Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

During his tours ashore, Clapperton served as aide to Deputy Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet; flag lieutenant to Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet/Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic; flight instructor, Prowler Fleet Replacement Squadron; on the staffs of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and Commander, Naval Air Force Pacific; Deputy Director, Operations, J3, U. S. Cyber Command; and Commander, Joint Task Force Cyber 10th Fleet. Clapperton's awards include from each of his sea duty commands, the Battle E and Chief of Naval Operations Retention Excellence Awards. In September 2007, Clapperton was awarded the prestigious Admiral James Bond Stockdale Award for Inspirational Leadership.

Lieutenant General (Retired) Ed Cardon’s service to our Nation spans over 36 years with extensive experience establishing, leading, and transforming 14 very different organizations with diverse mission sets such as operations, education, cyber, and innovation. He commanded 2d Infantry Division in the Republic of Korea. He both transformed and scaled Army Cyber Command into a world-class cyber force, while simultaneously standing up new cyber organizations to meet the demands of this contested domain including US CYBERCOM’s Task Force ARES, the offensive cyber task force against ISIS. He spearheaded the creation of the Cyber Branch for the United States Army, the first new branch of the 21st Century. His last assignment was as the Director of Business Transformation for the Army, and he led the task force that helped create Army Futures Command responsible for modernizing the Army. Today, General Cardon is a founding partner and Co-CEO of Touchstone Futures, a Senior Counselor with The Cohen Group, Visiting Scholar, Vanderbilt Institute of National Security, and the senior Advisor for the Army Cyber Institute. He continues to focus on helping individuals and teams solve hard problems.

John Garstka, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Director for Cyber Warfare within the DASD for Platform and Weapon Portfolio Management, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

His current responsibilities include oversight of the development and acquisition of capabilities for cyberspace operations and implementation of DoD’s Strategic Cybersecurity Program, which focuses on cyber hardening the Department’s highest priority missions. As the Director for Cyber Warfare he pioneered the application of Cyber Resiliency assessments to help Combatant Commands understand cyber risks to critical missions and the application of Mission Focused Cyber Hardening to prioritize cyber mitigations.

Mr. Garstka began his career as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was commissioned in 1983 after graduating as a Distinguished Graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a BS in Mathematics. He earned a Master of Science degree in Engineering from Stanford University in 1985 and served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force for 10 years and in the U.S. Air Force Reserve for 15 years.

He has an extensive background in systems engineering, mission analysis, cyber risk assessment, and capability development for space, communications, networking, and cyber capabilities. His experience includes material solution analysis for space surveillance systems, communications satellites, unmanned aerial systems communications, airborne networking, cyber ranges, and capabilities for cyber situational awareness. As an operations research analyst he conducted force structure analysis for the Air Force Officer Force and the Air Force Acquisition Workforce.

He has written and spoken extensively on the topics of network-centric warfare, warfighting innovation, and defense transformation.

Mr. Garstka is married to Diane and resides in Springfield, VA and is the proud parent of four children.

Dr. Phyllis Schneck is vice president and chief information security officer (CISO) for Northrop Grumman. In this role, she oversees the company’s global cybersecurity strategy and policies and is responsible for the digital security of the company’s products, services and infrastructures.

Schneck has 20 years of government and private-sector experience in senior cybersecurity positions. She joined Northrop Grumman in 2019 from Promontory, a division of IBM, where she led the firm’s cybersecurity practice as managing director and global leader of Cyber Solutions.

Prior to her tenure with Promontory, Schneck served as the deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity and communications for the Department of Homeland Security, where she led responses to cybersecurity threats against corporations, civilians and the government. During this time, she led the defensive cybersecurity operational mission to mitigate and respond to cyber threats across the federal civilian government and private sector. She supported the department’s mission of strengthening the security and resilience of the nation’s critical infrastructure, working with all areas of the department, government agencies, law enforcement and the private sector. Schneck led the transformation of signature technology applying analytics to the central cyber protection that the DHS provides to civilian agencies.

Schneck also served as chief technology officer for the global public sector at McAfee, where she was responsible for products and services used by governments to counter global cyber threats and maintain industrial and telecommunications security. She led the development of the firm’s crowdsourced real-time cyber threat intelligence and analytics used to protect critical infrastructure, played a key role in developing McAfee’s cybersecurity policy position, and on several occasions, testified before Congress on cybersecurity technology and policy.

Schneck was a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Cybersecurity as part of the 44th President’s administration. She was chairman of the board of directors of the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance, a partnership between corporations, government and law enforcement for using cyber analysis to combat international cybercrime. Schneck was also vice chairman of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s advisory board on information security and privacy, and she served for eight years as national chairman of the board of directors of the FBI’s public-private InfraGard program. She has briefed and worked with several foreign governments to form partnerships with the U.S. for information sharing, infrastructure protection, and cybersecurity. Schneck holds several information-security and technology patents. Dr. Schneck is also a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Schneck earned her doctorate in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as both a master’s in computer science and a bachelor’s in computer science and mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. In 2020, Schneck was an Inductee into the Georgia Tech College of Computing Hall of Fame.

Northrop Grumman is a technology company, focused on global security and human discovery. Our pioneering solutions equip our customers with capabilities they need to connect, advance and protect the U.S. and its allies. Driven by a shared purpose to solve our customers’ toughest problems, our 90,000 employees define possible every day.

Jeff Schilling is the global CISO of Teleperformance, a French CAC 40 company, with over 500,000 employees and offices located in over 100 countries. Jeff is responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of the cyber security and fraud prevention functions, risk management, global incident response, and manages a global staff of 620 employees in 47 countries. Jeff serves as the strategic advisor to the Board of Directors and Corporate Executive Committee on all matters relating to cyber security policy, posture, readiness, investment, and risk. Jeff is a retired US Army Colonel with 24 years of military service and experienced in IT service management, product management, CIO leadership roles, information security and global cyber operations. Jeff’s roles since retiring from military service include managing an international incident response and forensics practice and 11 years in multiple CISO roles for global, business to business service provider companies.

Damon Becknel is the Deputy Chief Information Security Officer for Regulated Industries at Microsoft and provides security oversight and governance for Microsoft’s solutions for regulated industries, including healthcare and financial services and our legal department. He brings nearly a decade of experience as a CISO for multiple regulated companies to the Microsoft CISO organization. Prior to joining Microsoft, Damon served as the Chief Information Security Officer for ID.me where he oversaw all security matters, risk management, security compliance and collaborated to fight identity fraud with numerous external customers within the government and private sector. Additionally, he worked as the Chief Information Security Officer at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ) after being promoted from the Director, Information Security Programs. In his former role, he was responsible for Security Risk Management, 3rd Party Risk Assessments, policy governance, coordinating security response for both internal and external audits, awareness, penetration testing, and security portfolio management. Prior to joining Horizon BCBSNJ, Mr. Becknel spent more than 20 years of active service in the United States Army. Career highlights for Mr. Becknel include leading all efforts to maintain and defend all U.S. Military networks in Southwest Asia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, directing all operations for the National Security Agency’s Hunt Division, creating and leading one of the first offensive cyber operations team for the United States Army, leading the Nation’s first military counter-cyber operations team to final operating capability and serving as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science for the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York.

​Damon graduated from the USMA in West Point, New York where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and earned his Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he also interned and conducted research with the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by the Economist. He is the New York Times best-selling author of 14 books -- including A Hacker’s Mind -- as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter Crypto-Gram and blog Schneier on Security are read by over 250,000 people. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and 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 EPIC and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.