About Cyber Defend Consultants
Experienced cybersecurity leadership grounded in business reality.
Cyber Defend Consultants helps organizations strengthen cybersecurity governance, manage risk, and make informed security decisions through practical executive leadership and strategic guidance.
Experienced Leadership
Cybersecurity guidance backed by decades of real-world experience.
Cyber Defend Consultants was founded by former Chief Information Security Officer Jack Rumbaugh to provide organizations with experienced cybersecurity leadership, strategic guidance, and practical risk management.
Leadership That Understands the Business
Jack brings more than three decades of information technology experience, including nearly two decades of cybersecurity leadership across complex and highly regulated environments.
His experience includes serving as a Chief Information Security Officer and senior cybersecurity executive, building security programs, improving organizational maturity, leading incident response, managing cyber risk, and communicating with executive leadership and boards of directors.
This background enables Cyber Defend Consultants to provide advice that reflects operational reality rather than theory alone.
Experience Across Complex Environments
- Fortune 500 organizations
- Federal and state government
- Healthcare and regulated data
- Telecommunications
- Critical infrastructure
- Financial services
- Technology and professional services
Experience That Matters
Proven leadership across cybersecurity strategy, risk, and operations.
Cyber Defend Consultants brings broad experience across the disciplines required to build, manage, and improve an effective cybersecurity program.
Executive Cybersecurity Leadership
Development and execution of cybersecurity strategies, operating models, investment priorities, and measurable program objectives.
Governance and Risk Management
Practical governance structures, risk assessments, control frameworks, policies, and reporting that help organizations make informed decisions.
Security Program Development
Building and improving cybersecurity programs, teams, processes, metrics, and accountability structures from the ground up.
Incident and Crisis Leadership
Executive coordination, decision support, communication, containment, and recovery guidance during cybersecurity incidents and business disruptions.
Regulatory and Audit Readiness
Support for organizations navigating regulatory requirements, customer expectations, audit preparation, control assessments, and remediation planning.
AI Governance and Emerging Risk
Governance, policy, risk assessment, and oversight for artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
Regulated and High-Risk Environments
Experience where cybersecurity requirements are complex and consequential.
Federal and Public-Sector Experience
Jack spent more than a decade supporting highly regulated federal systems in the Washington, D.C. area, working with organizations responsible for public services, sensitive information, and mission-critical operations.
His work included cybersecurity support for federal healthcare systems and software supporting Healthcare.gov, as well as security assessments, control implementation, audit readiness, and risk management aligned with federal security requirements.
Framework and Compliance Experience
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework
- NIST SP 800-53
- NIST SP 800-171
- ISO/IEC 27001
- SOC 2
- HIPAA
- PCI DSS
- SOX
- FedRAMP
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework
- ISO/IEC 42001
Our Philosophy
Cybersecurity should enable the business, not obstruct it.
Effective cybersecurity is not about buying the most technology or applying the same solution to every organization. It is about understanding business risk, making informed decisions, and implementing practical safeguards that support organizational goals.
Business First
Security recommendations must support the organization’s mission, operations, customers, and long-term objectives.
Risk Based
Priorities should reflect business impact, threat exposure, regulatory requirements, and available resources.
Practical and Direct
Clients receive clear guidance, realistic roadmaps, and recommendations that can actually be implemented.
Independent and Objective
Recommendations are based on the client’s needs, not pressure to sell a particular product, platform, or service.
Trusted Partner Model
The right expertise for every engagement.
No single firm should claim to be the best at every cybersecurity discipline. When specialized technical capabilities are required, Cyber Defend Consultants works with carefully selected cybersecurity partners while remaining engaged as the client’s trusted advisor.
This approach allows clients to access proven expertise in areas such as penetration testing, managed security services, digital forensics, incident response, vulnerability management, and cloud security without losing strategic alignment or executive oversight.
Cyber Defend Consultants helps define the need, select the appropriate capability, coordinate the engagement, evaluate the findings, and ensure recommendations align with business priorities and risk tolerance.
Let's Talk
Let’s strengthen your cybersecurity program.
Whether you need executive leadership, an independent assessment, governance support, or guidance through a complex cybersecurity challenge, the first step is a straightforward conversation.
Schedule an Initial Consultation