Countering Cyber Adversaries: Veterans on the Front Lines of Cyber Defense
- Dec 1, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 6, 2025
Insights from Terry McGraw (CEO, Cape Endeavors) & Clark Rahman (Associate Director, PNG Cyber)
Cyber Defense isn’t just about tools and dashboards — it’s about mindset. During a recent EC-Council fireside chat, Army veterans Terry McGraw and Clark Rahman unpacked how military experience directly strengthens today’s Cyber Defense mission.
No slides. No buzzword bingo. Just two veterans who’ve operated in both worlds: combat zones and corporate networks.
Cyber Defense as a Warfighting Mission
The Department of Defense treated cyberspace as a warfighting domain long before most businesses even had a security budget. That framing matters.
In military terms, Cyber Defense is:
A contested battlespace
Constantly evolving
Defined by adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)
Clark described it plainly: defending networks is “a cat-and-mouse game.” New exploits and vulnerabilities appear every day. Effective Cyber Defense means staying current on threat intel, TTPs, and real-world incidents — not just checking compliance boxes.
Terry extended that thinking to the commercial world: if you’re connected to the internet, you’re operating in contested space. From nation-state actors to ransomware gangs, your organization is now part of someone’s target set. Cyber Defense is no longer optional; it’s existential.
The Ugly Constant: The Same Doors Keep Getting Kicked In
For all the talk about AI, supply-chain compromise, and sophisticated operations, most Cyber Defense failures still start with the same three initial access vectors:
Malicious email / phishing
Unpatched systems and services
Compromised credentials
That’s it. Year after year.
Supply-chain attacks grab headlines, but when you trace them back, they’re often just those same three weaknesses — somewhere upstream.
The lesson for Cyber Defense leaders is harsh but clear:If you’re not patching, not enforcing MFA, not monitoring EDR properly, and not validating your vendors’ security posture, you’re not “behind” — you’re exposed.
Meanwhile, adversaries are using AI to compress timelines. Dwell times are shrinking from weeks and months to hours. Exploit development and weaponization are accelerating.
If your Cyber Defense program isn’t figuring out how to use AI safely, you’re ceding the advantage by default.
Why Veterans Are Built for Cyber Defense Roles
Cyber Defense is not just a technical job — it’s structured chaos management. That’s exactly the environment veterans are trained for.
Terry and Clark highlighted several reasons veterans excel in Cyber Defense roles:
1. Crisis leadership under fire
Incident response is never calm. Systems are down, executives are panicked, regulators are circling, and attackers are still active.
Veterans are used to:
Operating under stress
Making decisions with incomplete information
Working inside an established battle rhythm
Those same skills translate directly into Cyber Defense operations and major incident response.
2. Resilience and discipline
Even outside of combat arms, military training builds:
Emotional resilience
Discipline and follow-through
Commitment to the mission
In Cyber Defense, where burnout and pressure are constant, that mental toughness is a major asset.
3. Comfort with constant change
Every PCS, deployment, or new billet is a forced reset. New mission, new team, new threats.
In Cyber Defense, the technology, threats, and best practices change continuously. Veterans are already conditioned to:
Learn fast
Adapt quickly
Function in unfamiliar environments
4. Experience over academic pedigree
Terry was blunt: in Cyber Defense and security operations, passion, discipline, and the ability to learn matter more than a four-year degree.
Certifications, labs, and hands-on experience are the currency that matters.
For Veterans Entering Cyber Defense: Don’t Sell Yourself Short
If you’re a veteran thinking about Cyber Defense, here’s the reality:
Your background — whether infantry, comms, logistics, intel, or cyber — is more relevant than you think.
You’ve already proven you can operate under pressure and learn new missions.
You don’t need a perfect resume or a specific degree to be valuable in Cyber Defense.
Focus on:
Building foundational knowledge (networking, operating systems, basic security concepts)
Earning targeted certifications (CEH, Security+, incident response, forensics, etc.)
Building a small home lab to practice
Translating your experience into outcomes on your resume (what you achieved, not just what your title was)
And if impostor syndrome shows up? Join the club. Terry admitted he still feels it as a CEO. The difference is he keeps learning and keeps moving.
Proactive Cyber Defense vs. Paying for Failure
One of the biggest themes from the conversation: waiting for a breach before you take Cyber Defense seriously is financial suicide.
Every organization — from SMBs to defense contractors — should:
Develop a realistic incident response plan
Run tabletop exercises (TTXs) based on real-world threat scenarios
Understand reporting obligations (FBI IC3, contractual, regulatory, and CMMC-related)
Identify when and how to bring in external incident response teams
The stats are brutal: a large percentage of small and mid-sized businesses that suffer a major ransomware event don’t survive beyond a year. Not because of the ransom alone, but because of:
Business downtime
Recovery costs
Regulatory exposure
Legal fees
Long-term brand damage
Cyber Defense is cheaper when it’s proactive. It becomes crippling when it’s reactive.
The Human Element in Cyber Defense
For all the talk about AI, automation, and advanced analytics, Cyber Defense still comes down to people:
People who configure and monitor tools
People who make decisions during incidents
People who set priorities, budgets, and strategy
Veterans bring something irreplaceable to that equation: service mindset. A willingness to protect others — even when those others don’t fully understand the danger.
On Veterans Day and beyond:
If you’ve got veterans on your security team, ask them about their story. You’ll gain a deeper appreciation of what they bring to your Cyber Defense posture.
If you’re a veteran considering this field, understand this: Cyber Defense needs you more than you need it.
Final Thoughts
Cyber Defense is the new front line. The stakes are high: national security, critical infrastructure, and the survival of businesses large and small.
Veterans have spent their careers operating in high-stakes environments where failure has consequences. That experience is exactly what modern Cyber Defense demands.
If you’re building a security program, incident response function, or CMMC-aligned environment and you’re not intentionally tapping into veteran talent, you’re leaving a strategic advantage on the table.
And if you’re a veteran wondering whether Cyber Defense is a realistic next mission?
It is. And you’re already more prepared than you think.
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