About
G. Ryan Macfarlane is a senior cyber security professional with a career spanning over two decades. He specializes in addressing complex threats, including state sponsored and criminal intrusions, cyber crime, and intellectual property theft. He is recognized for his deep technical, legal, and geopolitical experience, particularly in building high performing programs and leading exceptional teams. Mr. Macfarlane holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, Atlanta, which he completed in 2000.
His professional tenure has been characterized by extensive service within the FBI, holding critical roles both domestically and internationally.
Career Highlights and Roles
Leader in Advanced Projects (2024 – 2025)
Mr. Macfarlane served as a Unit Chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s Advanced Projects Unit at FBI Headquarters in Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, AL. In this role, he secured $10.5 million to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives related to data exploitation. He is responsible for identifying, designing, and implementing cutting-edge, mission critical capabilities focused on AI analysis, data exploitation pipelines, covert messaging collection, and system development supporting the FBI’s interagency 702 process. He led a team composed of product managers, developers, computer and data scientists, senior IT specialists, and administrative staff focused on delivering innovative enterprise software projects for the FBI's Counterterrorism Division and the wider organization. He implemented and oversaw a robust DevOps and SecDevOps process operating across three classification enclaves, and has transitioned the majority of his unit’s development, infrastructure, and projects into govCloud, leveraging AWS capabilities to rapidly deliver projects.
International Cyber Coordination (2020 – 2024)
Mr. Macfarlane served as the Assistant Legal Attaché - Cyber / Acting Legal Attaché at the US Embassy in Canberra, Australia. There, he managed the FBI’s criminal and national security cyber coordination across Australia, New Zealand, and 24+ countries within the Oceania/Asia Pacific region. His duties included facilitating global takedowns and case coordination with regional partners, international policy development, and providing intelligence and assistance during high-profile cyber events. He engaged with senior authorities, private sector partners, and heads of mission to advance intergrated, global responses to high profile cyber events.
Headquarters and Field Operations (2008 – 2020)
Mr. Macfarlane held various roles at the FBI’s Cleveland Field Office, including Cyber Agent (2008 – 2016), and Supervisor/Cyber Program Manager (2016 – 2020). While there, he led the national security cyber squad investigating and countering Chinese, Russian, DPRK, and Iranian state sponsored cyber operations. He devised and executed hybrid HUMINT / cyber operations with other US and foreign government agencies. He was the lead investigator of the Bayrob group, which compromised over 400,000 systems and was the #1 sender of malicious email in 2016. During this case, he managed and analyzed what was at the time the largest Title III data intercept at the FBI. He established trusted relationships with the private sector through fortnightly intelligence sharing and was the FBI lead for the Northeast Ohio Cyber Security Forum. He also developed an in-house collection capability that decreased collection time from an average of a month+ to under four hours.
Between 2011 and 2013, he worked at FBI Headquarters as the Cyber Program Manager for China CNO within the National Cyber Investigative JTF (NCIJTF). He conceived and implemented the first whole-of-government counter-CNE campaign against APT 1. This work involved briefing the DNI, NSC, and members of congress on the cyber threat posed by China. He coordinated technical, legal, military, and diplomatic operations, as well as collection shaping among the intelligence community (IC), private sector, State Department, and the White House. The public result of this effort was the indictment of five PLA actors. During this time, he successfully attributed two extremely high-profile events via technical analysis and close coordination with IC partners.
Early Career and Foundation (2004 – 2008)
As a Cyber Agent on the National Security Squad in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, Mr. Macfarlane investigated multiple Chinese national security intrusion sets. This work successfully led to the FBI’s first indictment of five PLA cyber actors for cyber espionage. He built successful intelligence and criminal computer intrusion cases targeting the defense contractor, banking, telecom, and entertainment industries, and developed and administered the FBI’s first hybrid malware analysis platform (static and dynamic).
Awards and Contributions
Mr. Macfarlane’s work has earned him significant recognition, including the Director of National Security Award in 2016 for novel trilateral engagement with foreign partners on a state sponsored threat, and the Director of National Intelligence Award in 2012 for whole-of-government operation in the counter network exploitation space. In total, he has received 18 awards throughout his career for performance related to case work, solution development, and team leadership.
He has contributed to academic publications, including co-authoring Anti-Phishing Best Practices Recommendations for Registrars (2008) with Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of Crowdstrike. He was also a contributor to Industry of Anonymity (2018) and Mapping the global geography of cybercrime with the World Cybercrime index.
Mr. Macfarlane is an active conference presenter, speaking on topics such as the cyber threat landscape, the evolution of a cybercrime groups , and operational security used by criminal and state threat actors. He has spoken at RSA, SXSW (Sydney), Virus Bulletin, and various other conferences.
Technical Expertise and Affiliations
Mr. Macfarlane has served on numerous collateral teams, including the FBI Cyber Fly Team for seven years (participating in Operation Aurora and RSA intrusions), the FBI Cyber Strategy Team, and the FBI AI Working Group.
His specialized skills include Traffic Analysis and Intrusion Detection, Reverse Engineering, Enterprise Development, AWS cloud deployments, Cyber Threat Intelligence, Incident Response, Digital Forensics, and Artificial Intelligence.
He is certified as an FBI Cyber Instructor and a Certified Expert Witness.