Dewayne Hart

Dewayne Hart is a cybersecurity strategist, keynote speaker, and author who spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy before bringing that operational discipline to enterprise and government security. He retired as a Chief Petty Officer after maintaining computer and weapons defense systems aboard the USS Kearsarge, USS Constellation, USS Enterprise, and USS Spruance. Those years taught him the lesson at the center of his work today: security holds when leaders prepare before the pressure arrives.

In 2014, Hart founded Secure Managed Instructional Systems, LLC (SEMAIS), a cybersecurity advisory and workforce development firm focused on cyber readiness and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). His security work spans the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Army, Duke Energy, PwC, Kaiser Permanente, and Wells Fargo, leading risk mitigation, compliance frameworks, and vulnerability assessments at scale. He holds CISSP, CEH, CGRC, and CNDA certifications and a master's degree in information assurance. His current practice includes vulnerability management and attack surface and exposure management.

As a speaker, Hart helps executives, boards, and security teams move from passive protection to active readiness. He has presented at the National Cyber Summit, InCyber Forum, GovTechCon, the GDS Group Security North America Summit, the Techno Security & Digital Forensics Conference, EC-Council Cyber Talks, and AFCEA Atlanta. His topics range from AI security and ransomware defense to building cybersecurity teams that stay. His methodology, ""putting on a Hacker's Hat,"" trains leaders to anticipate adversarial tactics instead of reacting to them.

Hart is the author of "The Cybersecurity Mindset: A Virtual and Transformational Thinking Mode" (2022) and "Cybersecurity Leadership: How to Develop a Successful Mentality and Win" (2025). He hosts the Chief of Cybersecurity® podcast and YouTube channel, writes the Cyber Talk newsletter on LinkedIn, and is a former Forbes Technology Council contributor.

Based in Atlanta, Hart works with corporations, government agencies, and associations nationwide. His conviction is simple: cybersecurity is a leadership challenge first and a technology challenge second."