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Cyberspace—like our land, sea, and air—is another domain we need to protect.
Spies, military units, and the world’s most successful criminals have been at the forefront of innovation in cyberspace. Their hacks of governments, Fortune 500s, and emergency rooms grab headlines and cost billions. Have you ever wondered what’s behind their dark success? Laura Galante illuminates how the people, teams, and relationships forged through the defining cyber heists and espionage operations of the last decade can help us imagine a more resilient future. A seasoned TED speaker and the former Intelligence Community Cyber Executive, Laura has spent the better part of two decades building cyber intelligence programs for the US Intelligence Community, major cybersecurity companies, and governments in Asia and Europe. Her talks inspire everyone from global executives to operators to take on the most complex and impactful challenges of our digitally connected times.
Laura Galante is the former Cyber Executive for the U.S. Intelligence Community. For nearly two decades, she has built the teams and capabilities that have exposed the globe’s most sophisticated hackers and cyber operations. Her work unravels the hidden networks of people and technology behind some of the most costly and damaging breaches to date.
Laura brings her threat intelligence expertise and executive leadership to companies and boards across tech and critical infrastructure verticals, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and governments in Europe and Asia. She is currently a Principal at WestExec Advisors, a strategic geopolitical advisory.
From 2022 to 2025, she served at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As the DNI’s principal cyber advisor and Director of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, she was responsible for the coordinated Intelligence Community response to major cyber incidents. These included major Chinese compromises of U.S. critical infrastructure, crypto heists, and debilitating ransomware attacks on hospitals and the healthcare sector.
From 2017 to 2021, she assisted multiple Ukrainian government agencies in developing their cyber intelligence and defense operations, directed an international task force monitoring digital and misinformation threats, and served as an expert witness in groundbreaking cyber warfare trials. She speaks frequently on global competition in the digital domain at international and industry conferences, including her widely viewed and cited talk, which opened TED2017.
Laura previously served as the Director of Global Intelligence at Mandiant (formerly FireEye Inc.), the cybersecurity firm, where her teams gained widespread recognition for their pioneering discovery and attribution of multiple nation-state and criminal cyber operations.
She holds a B.A. in Foreign Affairs and Italian from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America. She runs a small farm in rural Virginia with her family.
Stories about hacking, fake news, leaked emails, and rigged elections have made alarming, bewildering headlines. And one thing’s for certain: they’re not going away. In the age of social media, information warfare is set to have major consequences for industry, geopolitics, and democracy itself.
This is the world we live in—whether we’re ready to accept it or not. And for CEOs of Fortune 500s, as well as leaders in the public sphere, Laura Galante is here to remind us that it’s not a matter of if, but when your organization needs to respond.
In this talk, this cyberspace expert helps us understand the evolving history of how states have navigated (and manipulated) the digital sphere. She also reveals larger ideas around the new digital zeitgeist: how information can be weaponized, and public opinion can be swayed with a carefully planted idea. She stresses the need for a greater cyber-fluency: how it’s up to us, and not rarified tech experts, to gain a working knowledge of the field. And she reminds us it’s not just systems, but minds that are under attack.
In the age of information, critical thinking has never been more crucial—and with Laura, we can renew our commitment to honoring, and questioning, the truth.
