Chris Dale
Principal InstructorChief Hacking Officer at River Security
Specialities
Offensive Operations
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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, and Incident Handling and SEC599: Defeating Advanced Adversaries - Purple Team Tactics & Kill Chain Defenses.
Chris knows the subject matter inside and out, is clearly confident in his delivery, and adapts well to remote delivery of his course.
Chris is at the top of his field. I have learned so much from him, and I enjoy how he relates the course material with his own experiences.
For me personally [Chris] managed to capture my attention. His enthusiasm is great!
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How does an organization’s external attack surface impact its offensive security initiatives? In our experience, a comprehensive understanding of this attack surface can help better emulate real-world attack scenarios and reduce threat exposure. In this webcast, we’ll explore the results of our survey that was designed to understand how knowledge of an organization’s external attack surface can help its security team evaluate risk and prioritize security actions.Register for this webcast now and be among the first to receive the accompanying white paper from SANS Certified Instructor Matt Bromiley and SANS Principal Instructor Chris Dale.
Is it really over when you are hacked? Or is it only over when our adversary has secured their impact and actions on objective? Perimeters are bound to be broken, but our game-over" scenarios should still be defended. We need to not only protect our inside, but carefully define what exactly are we defending? What has the highest impact on our organization, and from there on carefully architect our defenses to ensure we can always survive, even if we get hacked. We have learned that the perimeter has changed. We have a blend of inside and outside, often caused by a range of Software as a Service, Cloud Services, remote workers and more. So how do we stay secure? Come attend this forum to learn tactics, techniques and procedures we can employ to help us stay strong and secure. Forum Highlights: Discover how industry leading technologies and techniques can assist you with internal security policies in the workplace Learn from industry leaders as they dive into cutting-edge use case studies and specific examples, while highlighting how the tactics, techniques & procedures can provide the right information to help deter an insider threat Interact with SANS chair Chris Dale, speakers and peers in the interactive Slack workspace by posting questions and discussing the forum topic
Join us for the inaugural year of SANS Emerging Technologies Track! Are you interested in learning more about new cutting-edge technology in the cybersecurity industry? This is the place for you!Learn from the best and brightest in the industry as selected organizations review their latest tools and solutions that will better equip you for your battle with the bad guys and assist you as your team works hard to keep networks safe from intrusions. This one day track will feature a comprehensive collection of use cases, demos, and solutions for everyday cyber professionals looking to take their arsenal of tools and solutions to the next level. Don't miss this track on November 6, register now!
Offensive security is evolving, and traditional penetration testing is undergoing significant changes. Agile principles and techniques, which have been widely adopted in development and IT operations, are now being applied to penetration testing efforts; penetration testing will never be the same again.
How does Continuous Attack Surface Management help disrupt Nation State hackers and cyber criminals?
Annual penetration testing is no longer enough to keep pace with modern threats.
In an era where digital footprints expand faster than security teams can track, managing the attack surface is no longer a reactive task, it’s a continuous battle. Organizations face an evolving threat landscape driven by shadow IT, cloud sprawl, third-party risks, and zero-day vulnerabilities. Yet, many security teams struggle to gain full visibility into their external exposure, let alone remediate risks before adversaries exploit them.
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