Ismael Valenzuela is Vice President of Threat Research and Intelligence at BlackBerry, where he leads threat research, cyber threat intelligence, and defensive innovation. Ismael is an international cybersecurity industry expert with over 23 years of experience and frequently advises governments, critical infrastructure operators/owners, and corporations around the world on how to combat ransomware and other malicious cyber threats. He is a SANS senior instructor and author of some of the most popular courses in the SANS Institute Cyber Defense and Offensive Operations Curriculum.
Ismael is also part of IANS Research Faculty, and one of the few holding the highly regarded GIAC Security Expert (GSE) certification in the world.
Prior to his current role, Ismael was responsible for leading offensive and defensive security roles for Foundstone, Intel, and McAfee, among others, and founded one of the first IT security consultancies in Spain. Ismael has also served as an advisor to large government and private sector organizations, including the EU, U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure operators in New York. Ismael is regularly featured in cybersecurity publications and top security conferences, including BlackHat, RSA, and SANS Cyber Security Summits.