Greg Ake

Detection Engineering and Threat Research—from US Intelligence to Huntress

Greg began his career in US Intelligence and is one of the co-founders of the technology behind Huntress. As Principal Detection Engineer, he helps to integrate the Endpoint Detection Technology developed by Level Effect and acquired by Huntress in 2020.

It was back in 2003 that Greg joined the U.S. Air Force, where he specialized in Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) production. He hunted, identified, and collected signals of interest to support U.S. Intelligence needs, then pivoted into Digital Network Intelligence (DNI) and subsequently into Digital Network Exploitation and Analysis (DNEA) at the National Security Agency (NSA).

After his service, Greg became a government contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton and continued to support the NSA as a DNEA, where he met his future co-founder. They left the public sector to try their hand at a startup and eventually sold their technology to Huntress Labs. Now, they both work on furthering that technology for over 2 million endpoints, supporting the needs of small-medium businesses.

Greg also trains new Cyber Security professionals at Level Effect, a school committed to ensuring every student graduates with the skills needed to get hired in an entry-level cyber role (in contrast to the other certificate mills in the industry). Greg teaches a live cyber training boot camp in the evenings through this school.

Outside of work, Greg is a father of four and enjoys getting outdoors with his kids to explore all that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. He can even play almost every brass instrument except the trombone!

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What's your favorite cybersecurity tip, Greg?
“The most boring things in cyber security are the most critical Don’t overlook them.”

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