DaMon Ross is on a mission to bring the same caliber of cyber security operations and threat intelligence afforded by large banks and financial services institutions to small-to-medium businesses, education institutions, and state and local governments. In 2020, Mr. Ross started Cyber Defense International where he and his team leverage elite cyber security operations and cyber threat intelligence capabilities to deliver affordable cybersecurity solutions and services to organizations that lack the means to build the capabilities themselves.

Prior to starting Cyber Defense International, Mr. Ross served as the Senior Vice President for Cybersecurity Operations at SunTrust Bank. In this role, Mr. Ross was tasked to create SunTrust’s 24/7/365 cybersecurity operations center. As such, Mr. Ross built teams specializing in cyber intelligence, cyber threat monitoring, cyber incident response, and cybercrime. Mr. Ross successfully partnered with legal, human resources, corporate security, and enterprise ethics and risk partners to establish the bank’s first insider threat monitoring program. Mr. Ross also facilitated the establishment of numerous information sharing partnerships to include the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and Department of Homeland Security.

Before joining SunTrust, Mr. Ross pioneered the cyber threat intelligence function for Capital One Bank, the 11th largest bank in the United States. In this role, Mr. Ross led the development of an automated intelligence collection and reporting function that enabled real-time intelligence monitoring for Capital One’s cyber monitoring/response systems based on risk profiles developed in partnership with Capital One fraud, physical security, risk, and legal teams. These efforts led to the successful identification of key threats and protective measures for the bank’s most sensitive assets and initiatives. Before departing Capital One, Mr. Ross also developed a cyber threat hunting team focused on identifying network intrusions conducted by advanced persistent threats (APT).

Prior to Capital One, Mr. Ross worked at Fannie Mae in cybersecurity operations and steadily rose through the ranks, ultimately leading Fannie Mae’s cyber threat intelligence, detection and response operations. Mr. Ross has also served as a network engineer & security analyst in the telecommunications and federal government industries and proudly served in the United States Marine Corps.