About
Experts and Leaders in the Field of Insider Threat Training and Awareness
Our Expertise
Vaillance Group consults and trains worldwide for some of the world’s largest organizations. We help prepare businesses and organizations to defend themselves from Insider Threats. Our training helps you identify ways that you may be affected by malicious and unintentional threat actors so that you can better prepare and respond.
As a licensed partner with Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI), we conduct vulnerability assessments utilizing the Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT) Insider Threat Vulnerability Assessment tool. Our trainings are SEI-Authorized.
Our consultants are experts in the insider threat space, with specialized experience in both the public and private sectors. We provide counsel on complex and sensitive insider threat assessments and provide guidance on proper mitigation response.
The Problem:
Security is more crucial than ever before, with most risks coming from insider threats. In our modern interconnected and digital security landscape, employees have access to your most critical and sensitive information.
They are able to easily compromise your enterprise, leaving you, your assets, and your clients extremely vulnerable… knowingly, intentionally, or not...
The Solution:
Businesses and organizations must improve their diligence, cyber operations, and security. They must start by providing comprehensive security training and threat analysis, relying on experts who have the depth and breadth of experience to offer expertise on a variety of unique situations.
They must start by educating their people and informing themselves of vulnerabilities and risks.
Leadership
Shawnee Delaney is an Insider Threat expert, cybersecurity consultant, and CEO of Vaillance Group - a bespoke insider threat consultancy and training organization. She is a decorated intelligence officer and licensed private investigator and has conducted thousands of public and private sector investigations.
Ms. Delaney spent the better part of a decade working with the Defense Intelligence Agency as a Clandestine Officer conducting human intelligence (HUMINT) operations around the world. After the DIA, she worked alongside the Department of Homeland Security where she coordinated and managed intelligence community relationships with the private sector.
Ms. Delaney consults for Fortune 500 Companies, most notably in the energy, pharma and tech sectors, as well as the public sector. Her work with these companies has helped in targeting fraud, platform abuse, data exfiltration, and attribution of unauthorized disclosures. She is credited with creating Uber’s Insider Threat program, as well as the foundational training at Merck Pharmaceuticals that helps protect Intellectual Property and Trade Secrets. Her front line experience with some of the world’s largest organizations provides the foundation for her knowledge and field-tested recommendations.
A sought-after public speaker, Ms. Delaney shares her extensive knowledge to protect clients’ assets, people, and confidential information and to educate groups about the harm that comes from both malicious and unintentional threats. She holds an M.A. in International Policy Studies with a specialization in Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Proliferation, and a M.S. in Cyber Security.
Dan serves as a Senior Advisor on Intelligence for Vaillance Group. Mr. Hoffman has been a Fox News contributor since May 2018. Before joining Fox News, Hoffman had a distinguished career with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he was a three-time station chief and a senior executive Clandestine Services officer.
Hoffman also led large-scale HUMINT (human intelligence gathering) and technical programs and his assignments included tours of duty in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and war zones in the Middle East and South Asia. In addition, Hoffman served as director of the CIA Middle East and North Africa Division. During his 30 years of government service, Hoffman also served with the U.S. military including as an associate professor at the Army Command General Staff College.
Hoffman graduated from Bates College with a B.A. in History. He has a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (2006). Hoffman is the proud father of two children.
Meet The Team
Robin Dreeke
Robin Dreeke is a Leadership, Behavioral, and Communication Expert as well as a Best-Selling Author. He is a veteran Marine Corps Officer, decorated FBI Counterintelligence Agent, and former Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program where his mission was strategizing counterintelligence operations domestically and abroad with other U.S. Intelligence Community services and foreign intelligence partners. During his 21+year career with the FBI, Mr Dreeke served as a Counterintelligence Agent in New York City, Norfolk Virginia, Fredericksburg Virginia, FBI Headquarters, and the FBI Academy at Quantico Virginia where he both ran the Behavioral Analysis Program as well as instructed Advanced Counterintelligence Training for the FBI. Since 2010, Mr. Dreeke has been a speaker/trainer and executive coach for Fortune 500 companies, Military, and Federal Agencies.
James C. Lawler
Mr. Lawler serves as a national security consultant and is the Senior Partner at MDO Group, which provides HUMINT training to the Intelligence Community and the commercial sector focused on WMD, CI, technical and cyber issues. Mr. Lawler has been the Lead Instructor and Supervisor of these training courses since 2007. He is a noted speaker on the Insider Threat in government and industry. Prior to this, Mr. Lawler served for 25 years as a CIA operations officer in various international posts and as Chief of the Counterproliferation Division's Special Activities Unit. His overseas assignments include Bern (1982-1985), Paris (1985-1989), Oslo (1989-1991), and Zurich (1991-1994).
Mr. Lawler was a member of CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (SIS-3) from 1998 until his retirement in 2005. He spent well over half of his CIA career battling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. As Chief of the A.Q. Khan Nuclear Takedown Team, Mr. Lawler was the recipient of one of the CIA's Trailblazer Awards in 2007, marking the 60th anniversary of CIA. He also received the Director's Award from DCI George Tenet, the U.S. Intelligence Community's HUMINT Collector of the Year Award, and the Donovan Award from the CIA's Deputy Director of Operations.
Prior to his career in intelligence, Mr. Lawler practiced law and was the president of a steel components company in Texas. He is a graduate of Rice University, Houston, Texas; and the University of Texas School of Law. He is married to Ellen and has three children and seven grandsons. He has completed two novels: “Living Lies,” a story of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and “In the Twinkling of an Eye,” about espionage and a devastating Russian-North Korean genetic bioweapon. Both have been cleared by the CIA’s Publication Review Board. He is currently writing his third espionage novel, “The Traitor’s Tale,” which is about treachery and treason deep within the CIA.
Joy Beland
Joy serves as a Strategic Advisor on the Insider Threat training programs for Vaillance Group. She joined Vaillance Group in 2020, after completing the Carnegie Mellon SEI Insider Threat Program Management and Vulnerability Assessor certificates.
Joy also currently serves as the CMMC Program Manager for Edwards Performance Solutions, delivering live Professional Instructor training for all areas of CMMC, as well as an active participant of the Commercial Cybersecurity Assessment Team.
Before joining Edwards, Joy served the MSP community as a cybersecurity education instructor, educating 3,000+ on cybersecurity fundamentals from 2019-2020. In addition to her facilitation experience, Joy owned a successful MSP in Los Angeles for 21 years.
Alex Hodgson
Alex is a Senior Advisor for Investigations for Vaillance Group. He is a fraud investigator, an England and Wales-qualified forensic accountant, and a former detective with the Metropolitan Police Service.
He is currently the lead investigator in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for one of the world's largest tech companies, where he employs his range of technical and financial investigation skills to track down internal bad actors, as well as to combat organized, large-scale fraud rings attacking from the outside.
He is an Oxford graduate and lives in the Netherlands with his wife and a small, talkative child.
Maggie Buck
Maggie is a strategic Insider Threat and IT Security professional with experience spanning the assessment, development, and management of security, systems, and network infrastructure in enterprise environments. Currently she works for a multinational pharmaceutical company where she leads a team tasked with identifying Insider Threat behaviors, facilitating investigation of complex security issues and performing data manipulation and analysis in order to tell a story and make smarter choices. Before finding her way to Insider Threat, Maggie did consulting work in Digital Forensics, Information Security and Network Engineering.
Maggie’s undergraduate studies were in Computer Science and Public Administration and she earned an MBA with an emphasis in Finance and Accounting. She has obtained many industry certifications in security, forensics, networking and insider threat. She spends her non-working hours chasing her two small children, reading or half-heartedly learning to play the banjo.
Lauren Wygant
Lauren Wygant is a former CIA Operations Officer with an established record of spotting, assessing, developing, and recruiting agents throughout the world and against some of the United States' most difficult targets. Recognized for her demonstrated ability to progress critical relationships with both local and foreign partners, and spearheading the creation and implementation of numerous robust operational plans, Ms. Wygant is now a Senior Security Consultant and Human Intelligence Specialist for Vaillance Group. In this capacity, Lauren provides strategic guidance and workforce-resiliency training to support Insider Threat Program development and deployment.
Keith Smith
Keith serves as a Strategic Advisor for Counterintelligence and Insider Threat for Vaillance Group. Keith is a credentialed counterintelligence agent and certified insider threat program manager (ITPM) with a passion for helping public and private sector organizations protect their critical assets and mitigate enterprise risks.
Keith is a practitioner who has helped develop, revolutionize, and mature insider threat programs for two Fortune 20 companies: a financial services firm and a major industrial manufacturer. Keith led complex threat assessments and performed corporate security investigations for a large defense contractor and mastered several counterintelligence roles within the Department of Defense to include counterespionage investigations, operational analysis, supply chain risk assessments, vulnerability assessments, and technology protection. Keith is a proud U.S. Air Force veteran and lives in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia.