Gary C. Kessler, PhD, CISSP, is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative. He is president of Gary Kessler Associates, a consulting, research, and training company located in Ormond Beach, Florida, and a principal consultant at Fathom5, a maritime digital services company headquartered in Austin, TX. He has been in the information security field for more than 40 years. Gary is the co-author of “Maritime Cybersecurity: A Guide for Leaders and Managers,” as well as more than 75 other papers, articles, books, and book chapters about information security, digital forensics, and technology. He has been a speaker at national and international conferences for nearly 30 years.

Gary retired as a professor of cybersecurity from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 2021, after 20 years in higher education. He has been a visiting faculty member in the Electrical Engineering & Cyber Systems Section at the US Coast Guard Academy, where he taught information security and maritime cybersecurity. Gary is also an adjunct professor at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia.

Gary has a BA in mathematics from Humboldt State University (California), an MS degree in computer science from the University of Vermont, and a PhD in computing technology in education from Nova Southeastern University (Florida). His research interests focus on maritime cybersecurity, particularly related to AIS, as well as network protocols, digital forensics, and cybersecurity management and policy.

Gary is a member of the advisory board of the Maritime & Port Security Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (MPS-ISAO), is Chief of the Cyber Augmentation Branch of the Cybersecurity Division of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, is a member of the USCG Research & Development Center (RDC) Auxiliary Support Unit, holds a USCG master merchant mariner certificate, and is active in National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) standardization efforts. Gary is also a Master SCUBA Diver Trainer and holds a USCG Auxiliary coxswain qualification.