Chris Rouland

I build companies that defend the systems the modern world runs on. I’m the Founder and CEO of Phosphorus Cybersecurity, where we’re securing the fastest-growing attack surface on Earth: the unmanaged xIoT and OT devices buried inside every enterprise, hospital, factory, and critical infrastructure network. Our mission is straightforward—make every device discoverable, patchable, and change every password at global scale. For more than 25 years, I’ve worked at the front edge of cybersecurity. I’ve founded and led several category-defining companies, including Endgame, acquired by Elastic for $247M, and Bastille, the first RF-first IoT security company that exposed the risks hiding in enterprise airspace before “IoT security” became an industry. Earlier in my career, I built and led the X-Force at Internet Security Systems, one of the earliest true global threat intelligence teams. That work helped drive ISS to its $1.6B acquisition by IBM, where I became IBM Security’s first Chief Technology Officer and a Distinguished Engineer.My focus has always been on the layers where attackers thrive and defenders hesitate: firmware, RF, embedded systems, industrial controls, and now the exploding universe of xIoT. These systems operate quietly, run everything, and create outsized risk when they’re ignored—which is exactly why I don’t ignore them.I’ve spoken at RSA, Black Hat, and HITB GSEC, and have been featured in CNN, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. I hold 17 patents across intrusion detection, electromagnetic signal analysis, static code analysis, and IoT hardening, and I earned my Master’s from Georgia Tech.Looking forward, the problem space keeps expanding—literally. As the world pushes into new domains beyond our own atmosphere, the same unmanaged, unmonitored devices will follow. Securing them will require new thinking and new architectures, and that frontier is already on my radar.I’m building the technology and teams to defend devices everywhere—from factory floors to the edges of the next frontier.If it has firmware, a radio, or a blinking light, I want to secure it.