About Us

| Who We Are

Our mission is to empower you to protect what's essential to your business, ensuring you stay in control with a cybersecurity culture designed around your specific needs.

Optic Cyber Solutions is a veteran owned small business headquartered in Maryland. We are proud to be a Qualified Maryland Cybersecurity Seller, a CMMC Registered Practitioner Organization (RPO), and a member of the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland, Inc. (CAMI).

We understand that cybersecurity should be a business enabler, not a roadblock. We work with organizations across industries to understand the threats and vulnerabilities that will prevent them from reaching their business goals and build resilience into their cybersecurity practices.

| What We Do

Optic Cyber Solutions applies the lens of cybersecurity to your business.

As the frequency of cybersecurity incidents continues to increase, organizations must be able to identify threats and mitigate the vulnerabilities that are most likely to impact their business. Organizations are also increasingly pressured to meet evolving cybersecurity regulations and provide appropriate protections for their critical assets.

To support these challenges, Optic Cyber Solutions provides services including cybersecurity assessments, implementation support, and advising services. These services focus on incorporating cybersecurity requirements at each stage of building a new capability while still enabling organizations to achieve their business goals.

| Meet Our Leadership

The cybersecurity engineers at Optic Cyber Solutions have decades of experience assisting commercial organizations as well as government agencies to improve their cybersecurity programs. Members of our team worked closely with both the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) during the development of the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (Cybersecurity Framework) and the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) in the creation of their Cybermaturity Platform.

This experience has afforded our team the unique opportunity to meet with thousands of cybersecurity practitioners across industries to gain insight into best practices and lessons learned. Optic Cyber Solutions leverages this experience to create practical recommendations and guidance to meet organizational needs without placing undue burden on the business.

Tom Conkle

CEO & Cybersecurity Engineer

Tom Conkle, CISSP, is a cybersecurity engineer with over 20 years of experience helping organizations mature and assess their cybersecurity capabilities. Tom has supported the implementation of industry standards such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), CMMC (NIST SP 800-171), FedRAMP/FISMA (NIST SP 800-53), and ISO 27001. As a CMMC Certified Professional (CCP) and a Lead CMMC Certified Assessor (CCA), he specializes in guiding organizations through the preparation process for CMMC assessments. He has also assisted dozens of commercial and governmental organizations in mitigating risks within their cybersecurity programs using the NIST CSF and is the co-author of ISACA's guide for implementing the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Additionally, as a principal architect of the CMMI Cybermaturity Platform, he developed a self-assessment SaaS tool that helps organizations create risk-informed cybersecurity programs and track their progress.

Kelly Hood

EVP & Cybersecurity Engineer

Kelly Hood, CISSP, specializes in helping organizations implement cybersecurity and privacy best practices, controls, and standards to effectively manage risks and achieve compliance objectives. Kelly supports the evolution and outreach of the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) as part of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework team and continues to aid organizations in adopting the Framework to strengthen their cybersecurity posture. Kelly also supports organizations across industries as a CMMC Certified Professional (CCP) and Registered Practitioner (RP) by developing and implementing cybersecurity strategies to help manage the risks to their business. Additionally, Kelly supported the development and expansion of ISACA's CMMI Cybermaturity Platform (CMMI-CP). The patented approach she helped develop for ISACA translates cybersecurity risk to cybermaturity goals and identifies mitigation strategies to help organizations improve their cybersecurity capabilities.