Dr. Matthew Canham is the CEO of Beyond Layer 7, a security consulting firm specializing in mitigating insider risk, human-centric security solutions, and data analytics. He is a founding member of the Cognitive Security Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to research and understanding the nuances of defending human and artificial decision makers from cognitive attacks. He currently holds an affiliated faculty member appointment with George Mason University, where the focus of his research orients around synthetic media – deepfake-social social engineering attacks, cognitive security, and insider risk. Dr. Canham was previously a Special Agent for the FBI, where he investigated cybercrimes, insider threats, and ran cyber HUMINT operations as a certified online covert employee. During his tenure with the FBI, he also served as a subject matter expert with the Behavioral Analysis Program (BAP) and as the Technical Liaison between the Operational Technology Division (OTD) and the Cyber Behavioral Analysis Center (CBAC). Dr. Canham has previously taught courses on synthetic media attacks, cognitive warfare, human-centric security, and insider risk for: NATO, NASA (Kennedy Space Center), DARPA, MIT, BI (Oslo), Aberdeen Proving Ground, and the FBI. He holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology with special expertise in human centric security, data analytics, and behavioral engineering.
