I work at the intersection of cyber defense, AI safety, and emerging risk, where the threats are converging and the playbooks are still being written.

My career has taken me from the Marine Corps to NSA, U.S. Cyber Command, the U.S. House of Representatives, Mandiant, and Netflix. Across every role, one throughline: understanding adversaries, building high-trust teams, and translating complex problems into strategies leaders can act on.

Today, I advise organizations, governments, and research institutions on AI governance, agentic threat preparedness, and unifying safety and security into a single discipline. I contribute to global standards efforts including the EU AI Act (via OWASP AI) and lead executive education on cybersecurity and AI strategy at SANS.

If you’re navigating the future of AI risk or security strategy, let’s connect.

Chris Cochran

As a U.S. Marine who spent years working alongside special operations teams, I learned that different missions require radically different mindsets.

Everybody loves the Navy SEAL archetype: aggressive, adaptive, and masters of improvisation.

But if you deploy AI agents with that mindset, you are inviting disaster. AI doesn’t have the judgment to improvise. When it tries, it makes mistakes.

In high-stakes business environments, you don't need the "bang" of chaos; you need the "whisper" of control. You need more of a Delta Force methodology.

In my latest article, I break down why AI requires more determinism, and less heroism, and introduce CONTROL for governing agentic AI.

Read the full strategy below. 👇

Field CISO & VP, AI Security @ SANS | Bridging Cyber Defense and Frontier AI Risk | Ex-NSA, Netflix, Mandiant | US Marine Veteran

Let me set the tone clearly: This is not a debate about which group is "better." Both are elite. Both accomplish the impossible. As a US Marine, I res

Open article: Why You Need to Manage AI Agents Like Delta Force, Not Navy SEALs by Chris Cochran • 4 min read

Why You Need to Manage AI Agents Like Delta Force, Not Navy SEALs

What is your current view of AI in cybersecurity? I bet its a mixed bag. 

Foster Nethercott wants to hear directly from you. 

Make your voice heard. 

Just want the TLDR? Rob T. Lee and Foster will be hosting a livestream July 15th to cover the insights. 

Links to both in the comments. 

SANS Institute

NTT DATA Services

Sr. Director, Managed Security Services

Tejas Cyber Network

Professional Networking Community dedicated to expat Indian Origin Cyber Practitioners all across the globe

 Executive Committee Member (professional network)

InfraGard North Texas Members Alliance

Board Member - Secretary, North Texas Infragard

Naveen Jindal School of Management, UT Dallas

Adjunct Professor - Cybersecurity

Aashyaan Consultants

Director

ISHIR Secure

Director of Cyber Security

Wipro

Cyber Security and Risk Services at Wipro

Consulting Partner

Michaels 

Sr. Security Architect for Threat and Vulnerability Management

Sr. Security Architect

Infosys

Provide Enterprise Security and GRC Leadership to Infosys clients and help improve the practice.

Principal Enterprise Security Lead at Infosys

Citi

Integration for Mobile Wallet/Mobile Payments Projects. Mobile Product Management

Sr. Vice President

Sr. Director at NTT Data

Practice Partner at Wipro

Security Architect at Infosys

SVP at Citibank

Manager at Accenture

Sr. Support Account Manager, BEA Systems/Oracle

Senior Consultant, i2 Technologies, 2000-2005

Software Engineer, Nortel, 1998-2000

Co-op Nortel, 1997-1998

Specialties: Cybersecurity, Identity and Access Management, Cybersecurity Architecture, Software, Integration, Middleware, Alliances, Coordination, Program Management Traditional and Agile delivery methods, Mobile Payments (NFC), Mobile Wallet, Mobile Commerce/Finance, SOA/OSB, Analytics, Enterprise Security, PCI-DSS, NFC, TSM

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