Thomas Phillips is the Chief Technical Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Ridgeback Network Defense, Inc., with responsibility for new product development and overall technical strategy. At Ridgeback he merges over 35 years of programming and hacking experience, over 15 years of contract work for NSA in both technical and managerial roles, and the experience of three prior startups. He has served as a Russian linguist in the U.S. Marine Corps and performed electronics repair in the Maryland Army National Guard.