Jason Smolanoff, CISO Advisory & Investigations

Jason Smolanoff
Chief Executive Officer
CISO Advisory & Investigations

Jason N. Smolanoff is the CEO of CISO Advisory & Investigations, an information security, risk management and investigative firm providing Interim Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”), incident response preparedness, security risk assessment and litigation support services. He has over 16 years of experience with investigating and managing hundreds of proactive security risk assessments, incident response and data breach matters, and traditional investigations on behalf of Fortune 500 corporations, law firms and government agencies.

With a specialty in supervising and investigating sophisticated computer and network intrusions conducted by state-sponsored and organized crime actors, Mr. Smolanoff is an expert in performing proactive information security risk assessments and investigations to support criminal, civil, regulatory and internal corporate matters, including those involving leaks of confidential and regulated information, theft of trade secrets, and copyright and trademark infringement.
Prior to founding CISO Advisory & Investigations, Mr. Smolanoff was a Managing Director in Stroz Friedberg’s Los Angeles office for nearly four years, where he was responsible for business development and engagement execution across all of Stroz Friedberg’s business units. As the lead engagement manager on over one hundred matters, Mr. Smolanoff supervised multi-disciplinary teams, developed complex investigative methodologies and provided detailed findings and recommendations to outside counsel, corporate C-Suite and board members, and had direct supervision of Stroz Friedberg’s West Coast and Central region Security Science teams.

Before joining Stroz Friedberg, Mr. Smolanoff served as a Supervisory Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Los Angeles Field Office, where he oversaw daily operations of a Cyber National Security squad comprised of special agents and intelligence analysts. He managed and responded to all aspects of complex cyber national security investigations with a nexus to counterintelligence and counterterrorism. Previously, Mr. Smolanoff was the supervisor of an embedded FBI criminal cyber squad at the Electronic Crimes Task Force in Los Angeles.
An investigator who supported the prosecution of the two largest phishing and intellectual property right investigations in history, Operation Phish Phry and Operation Summer Solstice, respectively, Mr. Smolanoff was awarded the 58th Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service and the 56th Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement by the Department of Justice. In 2011, he was recognized for his contributions to a significant cyber counterintelligence investigation for which he received the National Counterintelligence Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In 2011, Mr. Smolanoff completed a long-term assignment with the FBI in Afghanistan as the lead mentor for 25 Afghan investigators assigned to two Organized Crime Units at the Major Crimes Task Force. His dedication and extensive accomplishments during this assignment earned him the United States Intelligence Community’s Joint Duty Certification.

Before entering the FBI, Mr. Smolanoff was a physical chemist employed by a major semi-conductor equipment manufacturer, where he was responsible for managing client engagements pertaining to the wiring fabrication of semi-conductor chips. His innovative leadership and solutions earned him two United States Patents.
Mr. Smolanoff is a frequent thought leadership speaker and an accomplished author, with several articles published in scientific journals. He is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School teaching Incident Response for their Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Concentration, and also provides Incident Response Victimology training to agents seeking to become behavioral profilers assigned to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Critical Incident Response Group, Cyber Behavioral Analysis Center, located in Quantico, VA. Mr. Smolanoff received his M.S. in Chemical Physics from State University of New York at Stony Brook and his B.S. in Chemistry from State University of New York at New Paltz.