The Team
Vigilant Cyber Systems
Michael Shields, President
Michael is a`Subject Matter Expert (SME) for cyber testing and signal processing and a multi-disciplined senior engineer and senior technical advisor with forty years of experience in electrical and computer engineering. His recent research has focused on offensive and defensive cyber testing and cyber-physical system testing. He has also conducted research in digital signal processing, and embedded algorithms for military and civilian signal analysis and communications applications. Dr. Shields is currently providing cyber testing SME support to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OSD ATL) Test Resources Management Center (TRMC) and is conducting research funded by the DoD in testing attack and defense tools on large cyber and cyber-physical systems. Prior to starting Vigilant Cyber Systems to conduct this research, he worked as a contractor for DARPA conducting IV&V testing on numerous cyber programs, including serving at the Cyber Testing SME for the National Cyber Range program. He has extensive experience developing software and hardware tools for testing and performing analysis on the large amounts of data generated in these tests. Dr. Shields was the chief design engineer and project lead for several research and development efforts while on the faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School.
Dustin Heath, Chief Operating Officer
Dustin is an experienced executive with 12 years of experience managing teams in the cybersecurity field. He has led numerous initiatives at VCS since joining in 2013 to include building a recruiting pipeline and talent retention strategy, building and managing a DCAA-approved accounting system, and leading marketing and business development efforts across DoD and private sector markets.
Prior to joining VCS Dustin worked for ManTech International as a project lead supporting DARPA research efforts to include the National Cyber Range (NCR). He received his undergraduate degree from Grove City College, and an MBA from Bellevue University, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
