San Francisco, California USA
For that concern, we turned to an expert with decades of experience in the field.
Here is a glimpse who we are speaking with to bring you the information you must know.
MICHAEL IRISH, FOUNDER, MANAGING PARTNER, SEDOGRAVITAS
Summary
Strategic leader with 25+ years of experience in senior leadership, technology and innovation, healthcare, longevity, national security other areas. The companies I have founded and lead, create concepts, companies and investments that make the lives of people better and safer at scale. I have founded and led 4 companies to date spanning AI, cyber, quantum, decision-intelligence, predictive analytics and data visualization, biometrics, healthcare, longevity and wargaming. As an executive with Accenture Management Consulting and SedoGravitas Partners (Current Role as Founder and Managing Partner), I have advised and partnered internationally with the Global Fortune 50, and senior government officials in the USA, Singapore, the UAE and 20+ other countries. I am an entrepreneur, market maker, inventor, CEO and thought leader. I have led innovation and new market creation for the likes of Accenture, Oracle/Siebel and many others. Coinventor on issued patents in A.I./machine learning and analytics. Author and keynote speaker in technology, security, cyber, international relations and technology.
Interview with an International Finance, Banking and Family Office Association TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYyAjD8PcoI
Healthcare CEO Keynote address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfP_oECVqmE
Other than CEO, founder and Chairman, my leadership roles have included leading global strategic management consulting, change management and strategy at scale. Issued patents in predictive analytics and machine learning. I am called on to assist in driving innovation, strategy, business development and new market creation in strategic markets in areas as diverse as defence, healthcare, longevity and blockchain. I have demonstrated the ability to see “over the horizon” and position companies for value creation and growth before the competition. This “skill” was originally cultivated in strategy wargaming for the USA DOD senior-most leadership and the entire 19-agency national security community.
Brands I have built (SedoGravitas & Vivacitas) and held senior roles in:
SedoGravitas Partners
https://sedogravitas.com
We are aware that cyber attacks have happened already and the most vulnerable point of our secure data is the subject of these attacks.
We posed the question as to what can we do proactively to avoid the consequences of data breaches.
Michael has provided an internal memo of how big boys approach this problem and areas of focus for the attention to be given as a proactive measure.
Some of his projects and work performed are listed here at specific companies that bring a lot experiences we will share with you in his internal memo shared with us for you.
I created this company to change the competitive landscape of the USA by changing the way
information is collected, decisions are made and tested, and making operational challenges become
opportunities that can pivot the fate of companies and the country in the aggregate. The US (public and
private sector) has been capitulating to the demands of quarter-to-quarter thinking and greed chasing
and trading advantage away in markets like China and giving our private sector and national leadership
away in the process. We are dysfunctional in our corporate leadership practices and decision making and
priorities. We will change this. We are doing so by enhancing enterprise and national technology strategy,
corporate and government decision-making under pressure, informing and mitigating confusing
political/military realities/threats, advising, and driving strategic investments, M&A, strategy,
organizational behavior, regulatory and governmental matters and market making.
SedoGravitas seeks to see the unseen and unanticipated and change confusion and ambiguity into
transparency and paths for decision-making. We are assisting leaders to digest the incomprehensible and
in turn make it understood and manageable for decision makers.
We specialize in discretion, adopting the impossible and intractable as our own for our clients and
spinning disaster into gold.
Vivacitas Healthcare
Co-Founder and CEO of Vivacitas Healthcare, Inc. In 4 years, took the company from concept to an awardwinning healthcare brand known for innovation, wellness, longevity, and age-mitigation/ disease of aging.
Most recently, our team created the go-to-market strategy for a longevity and age reversal product using
NMN a precursor to NAD. Before that, we conceptualized and created an analytics, AI and surveillance
platform for fall prediction that can identify the probability of falling and trigger an intervention hours or
days before a likely event. Created an end-to-end Covid-19 mitigation model. (See website). Started this
healthcare company to provide onsite clinics with MD’s, nurses and labs inside of senior living
communities. https://ih.advfn.com/stock-market/stock-news/79698731/vivacitas-healthcare-selectedfor-top-50-healthca
LRS Identity, Inc. (Tascent now NEC)
CEO and Founder of LRS Identity. Created LRS in August 2014 to become the global leader in iris identity
at scale. Developed the vision, strategy, and GTM. Led execution of all efforts. Within four months of
founding LRS, raised a large “A” Round ($18.5MM), completed an acquisition of a leader in iris & mobile
biometric technology, built the leadership team and developed channel relationships with 3M, Accenture
and Panasonic. Responsible for all border in-out biometric systems in UAE, Singapore, and many other
countries.
Accenture Management Consulting
Accenture’s Global Go-to-Market Lead for the Identity and Border Systems Practice in Asia, the Middle
East and select high value US clients, including the US State Department and DHS. Number two executive
in this global practice. Created new markets and revenue streams in strategic and emerging markets at
scale that generated >500MM USD in turnover in ~ <36 months. Operated in “C” suite with public and private sector leaders globally, including Deputy Heads of State of multiple G19 countries. Created the strategy, ecosystem and opportunities for identity, border control, visa and biometric solutions at international scale. Managed and led the diplomatic efforts that made solutions possible in Asia, the Middle East and North America. Deep expertise in Asia, the Middle East and North America. Routinely advised National Leaders on national security. In addition to national security, developed and led Accenture’s strategy and go to market activities for using strong identity (biometrics and analytics) to mitigate healthcare and other forms of fraud at national scale. Worked with public and private sector leaders in healthcare, law enforcement, government, multiple state legislatures and Offices of the Governor. Entrepreneur / Silicon Valley Start Up CEO and Co-Founder of software start-up that commercialized an advanced analytics and data visualization solution using unstructured/big data. Licensed from US DOE. Captured Fortune 100 clients including Cargill, GE, P&G and Toyota within a year of inception. Siebel Systems (now Oracle) I was an early member of the Siebel Systems team (1999’) charged with creating the defense and intelligence market for the firm. For two or more years, Siebel held the distinction of being the fastest growing company on the planet concurrent with my employment. We grew from ~ 250 employees to ~8000 people during my tenure. I had the privilege of taking purely commercial enterprise applications designed for sales and customer retention and convincing the most conservative agencies in the US federal government (including the CIA and others) that they needed them. I introduced sales force automation to the US Department of Defense Recruiting commands and created >100M USD in revenue.
I introduced customer relationship management to the US Intelligence community and led the first
classified programs for the company that are still in effect today under the Oracle brand. Oracle purchased
Siebel in 2004.
Simulation Technologies, Inc.
Vice President – Conceptualized, established and led a new line of business for the corporation dedicated
to anti-terrorism and risk mitigation in the commercial sector. Secured several marquee customers in
insurance, media, real estate, banking, professional sports and state and local government.
As the director of strategic business development, I generated more than 30 percent of Washington
operations FY ’97 and ’98 revenue and established a new line of business dedicated to space and
information warfare. I worked daily with senior national security leadership on critical national security
challenges. Company acquired by Anteon.
All work with/for DOD remains sensitive defense information.
Economic Strategy Institute
Research Associate – Consulted with and advised leaders in the US Congress, White House, US Department
of Defense and the intelligence community on matters of trade and technology policy. Authored 2
publications on industry/ government technology collaboration. My publications and Op-Eds were carried
by Aviation Week & Space Technology (OP ED Published 9 August 1995), Defense News, Space News and
many other outlets.
Inventor/ Patents and Intellectual Property
Things we can learn and take into consideration in our lives are right here.
EMBARGO
DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT
An Open Letter to the Incoming Director of the Office of National Cyber Security Policy
Subject: Cybersecurity and the Role of the Private Sector in Supporting the National Strategy
The new Administration’s place in history will be judged by crises seen and unseen. The
management of China, the war in Ukraine, the proliferating crises in the Middle East, global
economic and political tidal shifts and instability, high-tech trade and supply chain wars in
semiconductors and rare earth minerals, and the crushing U.S. debt, will require innovation, with
near perfect decision-making and execution. What presents as a less obvious, but no less
threatening, crisis is the historic and combined impacts of artificial intelligence, quantum
computing, and cyber advancements – all converging simultaneously and advancing at astonishing
speed. Any one of these would make for a benchmark in history. Together, they guarantee a
crucial turning point for humanity.
A cyber catastrophe inside the USA can impact every aspect of life, from internet access and
connectivity to cloud based systems, satellites, telecom, finance, transportation, and healthcare.
With each attack, the impacts are exponentially worsening, and taking longer to contain, mitigate,
and remediate. We believe that unless the private sector changes their governance and
accountability at the corporate Board of Directors’ level, and how they approach cyber-resilience,
the problems will accelerate and deepen, threatening the entire economy and the security of our
country. Most immediately, the entire US financial ecosystem is at risk of being brought to its
knees in a nanosecond.
We suggest that what could add dramatically to overall public policy objectives is a focus on how
cybercrime, cyber war, and the threats to the global information space are perceived and
managed, where cascading nefarious moves are taking place in systems owned and operated by
the private sector. To entice the private sector to be more active in the solution set, USG direction,
incentives, and other measures to mitigate the risk of these ubiquitous threats, would be
extremely beneficial to the private sector, the government, and our American citizens.
Artificial intelligence is making the interruptions and damage more severe and more costly to
defend against, and cheaper and easier for enemies and miscreants to deploy. Quantum
computing is coming online faster than we can prepare for it, potentially erasing the global
economic dominance that America has enjoyed for the last century.
In the following advisory overview, we will discuss:
I. Perspectives on Cyber Warfare and Cyber Crime
II. Decision Options for Your Administration to Consider
III. Next Steps and a Path Toward Stronger Engagement and Empowerment of the Private
Sector to Defend and Defeat Cyber Attacks
I. Cyber-Crime, Cyber-Terrorism, and the Private Sector Role
It is estimated that as much as 1% ~10% of the entire global economy is lost to, or affected by,
cyber-crime/terrorism, ransomware, deep fakes, and malware. The US Government spends
nearly $30 billion USD annually on cyber defense and associated programs. What the private
sector spends, and how they prioritize those expenditures, is more complicated to discern. The
USA presently ranks 9th globally on the National Cyber Security Index (NCSI), behind Estonia and
Austria. The US critical information infrastructure is at risk of eventually being interrupted,
damaged, or destroyed to such a point that government intervention and a timely recovery will
become unlikely as well as prohibitively expensive. The problem is grave.
The very fabric of our defensive and proactive cyber systems that protect us all are continually
under attack by state actors such as China, Iran, and Russia. These nation-states use their
intelligence organs to manage external, deniable proxies, further empowering their clandestine
operations. A small sample of the attacks this year include:
▪ The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) itself.
▪ MITRE, a federally funded cyber-R&D organization that is a major contributor to our public
and private sector cyberattack framework.
o Both CISA and MITRE were compromised, apparently due to Ivanti Connect Secure
VPNs that saw mass exploitation via compromise of Ivanti VPN devices. The
failures seem linked to a group tracked as UNC5221, that appears be a “suspected
China-nexus espionage threat actor,” according to researchers at Mandiant.
o The actions taken and remediation: CISA ordered civilian executive branch
agencies to disconnect their Ivanti Connect Secure VPNs within 48 hours. Attack
forensics are still in process.
▪ CrowdStrike Falcon automated update and subsequent failure. In July of 2024,
CrowdStrike, a leader in cybersecurity, acknowledged releasing an automated update to
its Falcon software. While the upgrade was seemingly intended to enhance cyber
defenses, it apparently failed, driving systemic collapses, and launching countless “blue
screens of death” in airports, banks, and other industries that use Microsoft operating
systems. The airlines, including Delta, were massively impacted, as were the healthcare
and finance sectors. Some estimates have the direct costs at $5 Billion USD, or more. The
indirect costs and impact of its actions may take years to understand.
On the commercial side, cyber-crime and deep fakes are driving massive financial losses, brand
damage, loss of shareholder confidence, privacy lawsuits, and disruptions that are severely
impacting operations and profits:
- Global cybercrime is growing at >10% per year. By 2025, cyber-crime, deep fakes, and
related attacks, will represent, in the aggregate, an amount greater than the economic
output of Japan or Germany. In less than a year, the global top three economies will be:
The USA, China, and Cyber-crime. - 96% of CEOs view cybersecurity as central for growth, stability and competitiveness.
Accenture, “The Cyber-Resilient CEO” Oct. 5, 2023” - 33% of CEOs strongly agree that they have “deep knowledge” of the evolving cyber threat
landscape, leaving many unclear how to address the risks. And fast-moving digital
innovations, such as generative AI, will introduce new forms of complexity and attack
vectors. Accenture, “The Cyber-Resilient CEO” Oct. 5, 2023”
Because cyber, AI, and deep fakes can warp information flow, perception and, therefore, decisionintelligence and decision-making, CEOs and Boards of Directors must be aware that their
organizations’ fate hangs on awareness of the right information at the right time. Typical decisionintelligence systems and models are now obsolete.
The private sector must change their governance and accountability models, and how they
approach and manage cyber-resilience, or the problems will continue to accelerate and deepen.
The pensions and retirements of countless millions, access to healthcare, and financial elasticity
of the country are all at risk, as is the ability to move towards the Golden Age of America agenda
envisioned to begin in 2025. Boards of Directors, CEOs, and the Cyber Director must be at the tip
of this spear in this fight, and come together to develop and implement a specific and cohesive
solution for our country.
II. Intent
It has long been the policy of the United States to assure the continuity and viability of critical
infrastructures. It is intended that the United States will take all necessary measures to swiftly
eliminate any significant vulnerability to cyber-attacks on our critical infrastructures, including,
especially, our cyber systems, and other technology elements such as AI.
The intension is to reduce our nation’s vulnerability to cyber-crime by enhancing the use of
private sector predictive cyber-decision-intelligence, enhanced risk management, and improved
resilience.
III. Next Steps
Situational awareness, accountability, and transparency with and for cyber-risk and cyber best
practices at the board level is necessary to drive change. This necessitates balancing the use of
sticks and carrots. The stick is strengthened regulation, better SEC rules, and cybersecurity laws,
coupled with enforcement and accountability. The carrot could be new tax incentives at the
federal level and/or the sharing of unclassified best practices used by our national security
apparatus.
To position the private sector to be a valuable partner to the USG leadership on nationwide
cybersecurity, reduce the strain on our governmental resources, and initiate immediate solutions
to the evolving threats, the private sector would benefit from engagement with industry
specialists who design bespoke cyber resilience models specifically for the C-Suite executives.
Goals should include:
▪ Strategic organizational & cyber resilience modeling to enhance preparedness, identify
defensive solutions, and define tactical implementation.
▪ Brand protection through proactive cyber strategies.
▪ Identify cost reduction opportunities that may reduce liability & insurance costs through
improved security practices.
▪ Strong vetting of 3
rd party vendors, and filtering of high-level decision-intelligence to drive
actionable preparation, response, mitigation, and recovery.
▪ Identify & plan for foreseeable threats and Black Swans Events that are increasing daily in
severity and implausibility.
▪ Create custom models for risk awareness: Create Leadership understanding of cyber risk,
its nature, origin, & impact now, & into the future, for global operations.
▪ Create models for decision-making stress testing: Evaluate defense, communications,
containment, & attack mitigation strategies before crises occur.
▪ Create long-term strategic to operational to tactical plans to see over-the-horizon, &
anticipate threat and risk therein, then pull that 3-5 year plan into the present and execute
it immediately.
Time is of the essence, as it has never been before. And it is time for Leaders to charge bravely
forward for the safety and security of our beloved America, under your mandate to prioritize
security to America. We stand ready to serve in this most critical and noble of objectives.
Very respectfully,
Michael Irish
CEO
SedoGravitas Cybersecurity Operations
