Tidal Cyber Announces Appointment of Damian Apone as Board Advisor to Advance Threat-Led Defense Innovation

RESTON, Va., Nov. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tidal Cyber, the global leader and creator of Threat-Led Defense, today announced the appointment and acceptance of Damian Apone as the company's newest Board Advisor. With more than two decades of experience across cybersecurity, technology, and global governance programs, Apone will provide strategic counsel as Tidal Cyber continues its rapid growth and advances industry adoption of Threat-Led Defense.

Apone brings a distinguished career spanning cybersecurity and technology for the past 25 years. He currently serves as Global Director of Governance, Risk & Compliance at Genuine Parts Company (GPC), where he has spent 12 years guiding risk strategy, program maturity, and enterprise-wide cyber alignment. He holds a BA from The Citadel and an MBA from Kennesaw State University, reflecting a strong combination of disciplined leadership and business strategy expertise.

Why Apone Joined Tidal Cyber

In a recent discussion with Tidal Cyber's leadership, Apone emphasized how much he believes in the Threat-Led Defense approach as a better way to address security. This was a defining factor in his decision to join the board.

"Tidal Cyber is really shifting that needle from traditional security to ensuring it is as effective as it should be" commented Apone. "I've spent my entire career helping organizations reduce risk in a way that is practical, measurable, and aligned to real threats. Tidal Cyber is solving the biggest gap I see across the industry: focus on the most important things and not everything to drive action based on the biggest risk to your organization - and that is the adversary. The platform gives defenders the visibility and confidence they've been missing. Joining Tidal Cyber as an advisor was an easy 'yes'.'"

Apone noted that Tidal Cyber's procedural-level intelligence, ATT&CK-aligned mapping, and unified view of threat, control, and exposure data were uniquely compelling. What excites him most, however, is the platform's ability to surface meaningful product comparisons, highlighting duplicative tools and overlapping technologies to give organizations the intelligence they need to make more objective decisions that are right for them. 

"Threat-Led Defense isn't just a concept; it's a whole mindset shift from what we were doing to how we are doing it. If I can't stop the attack and TTPs that are likely to occur, then what are we doing? Aligning TTPs and adversary behavior to my defensive stack is great, but Threat-Led Defense gets me as close to reality as possible. The confidence that comes with knowing how bad actors are going to attack me helps me sleep better at night" Apone added. "Tidal Cyber is leading that transformation, and I'm excited to help accelerate it."

Tidal Cyber's Leadership on the Announcement

Rick Gordon, CEO & Co-Founder of Tidal Cyber, shared his enthusiasm for Apone's addition to the advisory board:

"Damian brings a rare blend of operational cybersecurity expertise, governance leadership, and hands-on experience building programs at global scale. His perspective will be instrumental as Tidal Cyber helps enterprises move beyond checkbox security and confidently answer the question that matters most: can we defend against the threats and adversaries targeting us today? That is the essence of true Threat-Led Defense."

Gordon added that Apone's expertise in GRC will play a key role in helping organizations translate frontline threat insights into outcomes that resonate with executives, auditors, and boards, an area where Tidal Cyber's Threat-Led Defense platform has become increasingly essential.

Advancing the Mission of Threat-Led Defense

Apone's appointment comes at a pivotal time for Tidal Cyber. As organizations seek a more actionable approach to threat-led defense and identifying the delta between inherent risk and residual risk for organizations. Tidal Cyber is redefining how security teams align threat intelligence, detection engineering, control validation, and exposure visibility into a unified, measurable threat-led discipline.

Apone will support Tidal Cyber in deepening its enterprise strategy, expanding adoption across regulated industries, and accelerating its roadmap for translating adversary behavior into threat-led defensive effectiveness.

About Tidal Cyber

Tidal Cyber is the first true Threat-Led Defense platform built to flip the model by putting real adversary behavior at the heart of your defense strategy. Threat-Led Defense maps TTPs to ATT&CK revealing where you're exposed and how attackers operate. It's a level of precision you've never had before, empowering your security team to proactively reduce residual risk and optimize high-impact security investments. Learn more at tidalcyber.com.

SOURCE Tidal Cyber