Dave Merkel

Dave Merkel is Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Products at Mandiant. Based in Alexandria, Va., Dave focuses on shaping the strategy and direction of our technology and engineering solutions by building scalable innovation to address the rapidly evolving information security market. Dave has worked in the Information Security industry and within the world of Incident Response for more than 15 years, including service as a federal agent in the United States Air Force, and more than seven years directing security operations at America Online (AOL). At AOL, Dave led a team of technologists to protect corporate systems and network infrastructure. His department was responsible for the design, implementation, and operation of technical security defenses throughout the organization. He established AOL’s first incident response team and led the formation of a company wide program for managing security incidents across Time Warner’s diverse business units. Dave also played a key role in establishing AOL’s security assurance program, providing technical risk assessment services for systems, networks, internal applications, and products. As a primary security stakeholder, he authored significant portions of both the AOL and Time Warner information security policy, established an information security management framework for the corporation, and played an instrumental role in ensuring Sarbanes-Oxley and Payment Card Industry compliance. Dave also managed AOL’s internal security infrastructure software development initiatives. His team provided innovative solutions for protecting data centers and transit networks at scale, including technologies for intrusion and anomaly detection, incident response management, automated countermeasures deployment, and authentication and authorization. Prior to AOL, Dave served as a Special Agent with the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations, where he focused on computer crime and digital forensics. Specifically, Dave conducted criminal and counterintelligence investigations ranging from the trafficking of digital contraband to the pursuit of international felons responsible for attacks against Department of Defense networks. Dave has participated in countless forensic examinations and is a qualified expert witness in federal and state proceedings. Dave earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has held security clearances at Top Secret and higher.