Field CTO
Jack Danahy
About Jack
Jack Danahy is CovertSwarm’s Field CTO and a three-time cybersecurity founder. He co-founded Qiave Technologies, acquired by WatchGuard; Ounce Labs, a static source code security analysis company acquired by IBM in 2009; and Barkly, behavioral machine-learning endpoint protection acquired by Alert Logic in 2018. He holds 13 patents in cybersecurity and AI and has managed teams of 100+ cross-domain practitioners.
At CovertSwarm, Jack spends his time with clients, prospects and industry analysts, making the case for continuous offensive security. His view is plain. Point-in-time testing has a short shelf life, because code, applications, configurations and people keep changing. AI-enabled attackers move faster. Automated tools run known patterns, but they don’t mimic a creative adversary who links three modest weaknesses into one serious breach.
His stated aim: give boards and executives the same quality of information about cyber risk that they expect on revenue and margin.
Before CovertSwarm, Jack held executive roles from CEO and CTO to EVP of Strategy and Operations to Chief Evangelist. He earned a BS in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, wrote the MDR Manifesto, and has been named a Ponemon Distinguished Fellow. He has been cited in Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times and The Washington Post. His mission: to make all of us safer online.
Research & Publications
- Strength in Numbers: The Case for Whole-of-State Cybersecurity, Dark Reading, January 17, 2024
- Cybersecurity Is the Healthcare Your Organization Needs, Dark Reading, June 29, 2023
- Your Red Team Isn’t Testing the Fridge, LinkedIn
- AI Should Turn Testing Inside Out, LinkedIn
- Is your Go-to-Market Going-to-Expire?, LinkedIn
- MDR Manifesto
Latest posts
Your red team isn’t testing the fridge
In October 2026, attackers remotely shut down refrigeration in hundreds of European supermarkets through outdated, internet-exposed controllers. Most red team engagements would never have caught it, because fridges, HVAC and building systems sit outside the usual scope. Here are four steps to bring OT security testing into your program.
