Chris Dale

Chris Dale is a SANS Principal Instructor and SANS Analyst, and Chief Hacking Officer at River Security, where he helps organizations understand and reduce risk through offensive security, attack surface management, and incident response. At SANS, he teaches SANS’s flagship course, SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, and Incident Handling. Together, these roles position him at the intersection of hands-on operations, modern adversary simulation, and practical defender education.

Chris’s path into cybersecurity grew out of an early interest in how systems work and how they break. He began his career in 2009 at a large Norwegian ISP, working in development and IT operations, where he built a strong foundation in interconnected systems, infrastructure, and software. He went on to serve in increasingly senior security roles, including leadership over penetration testing and incident response teams at Netsecurity. In 2020, he founded River Security, bringing together offensive services, cyber consulting, and attack surface management. That progression from builder to operator to leader shapes the way he teaches: students learn not only how attackers think, but also how defenders can prioritize, respond, and improve resilience in real environments.