Dan Cornell

A globally recognized application security expert, Dan Cornell holds over 15 years of experience architecting, developing and securing web-based software systems. As the Chief Technology Officer and a Principal at Denim Group, Ltd., he leads the technology team to help Fortune 500 companies and government organizations integrate security throughout the development process. He is also the original creator of ThreadFix, Denim Group’s industry leading application security program management platform. Cornell was Principal Investigator as Denim Group researched and developed the Hybrid Analysis Mapping (HAM) technology that lies at the heart of ThreadFix, through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.

Prior to Denim Group, Cornell served as the CTO of BrandDefense, architecting and developing their cutting-edge intellectual property protection technologies. Additionally, he previously served as the Vice President, Global Competency Leader for Rare Medium’s Java and UNIX competency center, was a founder and Vice President of Engineering for Atension, Inc. and developed simulation applications for the Air Force with Southwest Research Institute.

Cornell is a sought-after speaker on topics of web application security, speaking at international conferences including the RSA Security Conference, OWASP AppSec USA and EU, and Black Hat Arsenal. He has also appeared as a guest speaker at institutions such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has published papers on topics ranging from data security to high-end graphical simulations, as well as an IBM Redbook on building server-side Java applications for the Linux platform. He is a recognized expert in the area of web application security for SearchSoftwareQuality.com and has been quoted as an expert in SC Magazine, Network World, CSO Magazine, Dark Reading and many more. He has been published by the Association of Computing Machinery and the Society of Computing Simulation International. He is also a regular contributor to the Denim Group blog.

Cornell is an active member of the development community, serving as the chapter leader for the San Antonio Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and the original chair of the OWASP Global Membership Committee. He also is a mentor for Techstars Cloud, a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program. He serves on the advisory board of Trinity University’s Department of Computer Science and is an active member of San Antonio Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), a collaborative network of business owners that enable entrepreneurs to learn and grow from each other. An internationally recognized development trainer, Cornell has trained thousands of individuals from leading Fortune 500 companies around the world and government agencies on topics centered around secure web development.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Computer Science from Trinity University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.