Threat Intelligence that Defeats Ransomware
Unite Experts and Defenders
Drive Public Policy
Advance Understanding
Meet Our Team

Cynthia Kaiser

Cynthia Kaiser
SVP, Ransomware Research Center
Cynthia Kaiser is a senior cyber and national security executive with two decades of experience protecting the nation from complex threats across the globe. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Director of FBI's Cyber Division, leading policy, intelligence, and partnerships to support victims and disrupt cyber adversaries. During her FBI tenure, she also served as a member of the Cyber Safety Review Board and as a daily intelligence briefer to senior White House officials in two administrations.
Today, Cynthia leads the Halcyon Ransomware Research Center, driving threat research and collaborating across sectors to detect, disrupt, and defeat ransomware. Widely recognized as a leading cyber executive by organizations like The Cyber Guild, FedScoop, CyberScoop, WashingtonExec, and GovCIO, Cynthia is most proud of the teams she has built and the critical systems and communities their work helps protect.

Maggie McDaniel

Maggie McDaniel
Senior Director, Ransomware Intelligence
Maggie McDaniel brings to Halcyon 20 years of intelligence experience in the public and private sectors. Most recently from Recorded Future where she built and lead Insikt Group, Recorded Future's threat intelligence and security research group. Over those 8 years, Maggie built a global team and expanded breadth of coverage to meet the needs of a growing customer base. Prior to that she worked in Fidelity Investment's Enterprise Cyber Security first in threat intelligence and later penetration testing and red teaming operations where she gained a deep understanding of threat intelligence applications in various security contexts. Maggie honed her intelligence tradecraft as a strategic weapons analyst at the US Central Intelligence Agency where she served for over a decade.

Meredith Burkart

Meredith Burkart
Senior Director, Government Affairs
Meredith Burkart is a cyber and national security leader with fifteen years of experience in cyber policy and intelligence and cyber policy. She previously served as the FBI Chief of Cyber Policy, as well as the first Director of Operations and Incident Response at the Office of the National Cyber Director. Prior to this experience, she was an FBI Cyber intelligence analyst. She also teaches cyber intelligence at Georgetown University.
Now as the Senior Director for Government Affairs at the Halcyon Ransomware Research Center, she pursues public policy solutions to stop ransomware and protect cybercrime victims. She is building a global hub of practical policy research and reliable consensus building towards a holistic, whole-of-society approach to defeat ransomware threats.