Thomas Parenty

Background

About Thomas Parenty

Thomas Parenty’s cybersecurity career spans four decades and more than twenty five countries, including employment at the National Security Agency where his responsibilities included protecting nuclear weapons from cyber attack by the Soviet Union. Thomas has designed and evaluated technical cybersecurity protections for a wide variety of critical systems, including those for banking, logistics, healthcare, high-tech manufacturing and electric power. Additionally, he directed the development of cybersecurity and cryptographic features in enterprise software products that governments and corporations around the world use to protect their most sensitive information and operations. He chaired a National Academy of Sciences panel that annually reports to the United States Congress on the suitability and effectiveness of the cybersecurity work at NIST, and advised Clinton’s Presidential Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection on cybersecurity research directions. His testimony on global competitiveness, national security and law enforcement before five Congressional hearings led to the liberalization of U.S. encryption export controls and the expansion of international markets. Thomas has written the only full length books Harvard Business Review Press has published on cybersecurity. The first, Digital Defense, introduces a practical framework for collaboration between cybersecurity professionals and their business counterparts. The second, A Leader’s Guide to Cybersecurity, provides clear guidance for boards and senior executives on fulfilling their oversight and management responsibilities. Corporations around the world use his book as their model for cybersecurity governance; and universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, use the book to provide a much needed business perspective for current and future cybersecurity professionals. Publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times to The Economist, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and South China Morning Post have interviewed Thomas on a wide range of cybersecurity issues. Thomas advises the boards and executive teams of leading companies on cybersecurity strategy and organizational alignment to anticipate, manage and develop resilience to the cyber risks they face.