Director

Hans Holmer

Hans is a retired CIA officer with extensive experience in strategic cyber issues.

His experience in nation-state intelligence collection and corporate defense goes back nearly 20 years and his engagement with the interface of humans and technology goes back to 1973. He spent over half of his career overseas and served on every continent except South America. While abroad he served in many different capacities and participated in several historical events of our time. Among other awards, Hans received the CIA Intelligence Star “in recognition of his especially valorous performance of duty.”

Within the cyber realm, Hans became an expert in conventional computer networks, telephony, Industrial Control Systems, and defensive strategies. He developed the Cyber Security Hierarchy, analogous to the Maslow hierarchy of human needs, which outlines a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied to achieve cyber security. It postulates that effective cyber security requires adequate resources, integration with the corporate business processes, esteem for cyber security requirements and the agility to respond to threats in order to have adequate impact.

Hans lives in Washington DC with his wife and son who is in grade school. When not playing with technology he is an avid photographer and reader of all things scientific, technical and historical. He still reads extensively in the historical intelligence genre as well.