Ismael Valenzuela
Vice President, Labs, Threat Research & Intelligence
New York, New York, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolIsmael Valenzuela is a veteran cybersecurity leader and researcher who currently heads Arctic Wolf Labs as Vice President of Labs, Threat Research & Intelligence, driving AI-enabled detection, CTI, and adversary-focused defenses for the world’s largest commercial SOC. With 25 years in the field and a rare GIAC Security Expert (GSE #132) credential, he blends hands-on offensive and defensive experience—from founding one of Spain’s earliest security firms to leading threat research teams at BlackBerry and McAfee—with strategic public-private collaboration as co-chair of the Counter Ransomware Initiative advisory panel. A SANS author and senior instructor, Ismael created the influential Think Red, Act Blue philosophy that reframes security away from compliance toward continuous, detection-driven operations. He also translates complex cyber, AI, and geopolitical signals into executive action through The Monday Brief, demonstrating uncommon fluency across technical research, policy, and board-level risk communication.
14 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor, Computer Science, Bachelor, Computer Science at Universidad de MálagaCertified in Business Administration (Senior Management Program), Certified in Business Administration (Senior Management Program) at IPE Business SchoolIRCA ISO 27001 Lead Auditor, IRCA ISO 27001 Lead Auditor at Bureau Veritas UKAttended numerous 500/ 600-level Security and Computer Forensics tracks in Europe, US and Australia, Attended numerous 500/ 600-level Security and Computer Forensics tracks in Europe, US and Australia at The SANS Institute
Spanish, English, French
Github Skills (22)
python9
python-requests8
analyzer7
api7
cortex7
jupyter-notebook7
rest6
incident-response5
machine-learning4
documentation4
docker-container3
react3
artificial-intelligence3
open-source3
css3
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
Foundstone/ExpertInvestigationGuides
Sep 2017 - Mar 2021
Expert Investigation Guides
Contributions:5 commits, 3 pushes in 3 years 6 months
sans-blue-team/sec530-wiki
Nov 2018 - Jan 2021
Contributions:60 commits, 58 pushes in 2 years 2 months
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