AttackIQ has appointed Dave Mihelcic as Field Chief Technology Officer – Federal, bringing a veteran federal technology and cybersecurity leader into a role focused on helping government agencies strengthen continuous cyber defense.
Mihelcic will work with federal technology and cybersecurity leaders to translate mission requirements into Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) programs. His focus will include helping agencies move beyond periodic security assessments and reactive processes toward continuous validation using threat intelligence, adversary emulation and evidence-based testing.
The appointment also connects Mihelcic to AttackIQ’s enterprise Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) program with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). AttackIQ said DISA selected its platform for enterprise deployment, with the program designed to continuously assess defensive capabilities against real-world adversary behavior and provide greater visibility into cyber readiness.
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Mihelcic will be responsible for program management activities, including deployment, workforce enablement, operational consistency and coordination across participating defense organizations. He will also help align technology, processes, training and governance with mission requirements.
A key part of his new role will involve guiding federal adoption of AttackIQ’s AVA Agentic OS, which coordinates AI agents across areas including cyber threat intelligence, adversary exposure validation, detection engineering, security-control optimization and AI security validation. The company said human cybersecurity professionals will remain responsible for priorities and mission decisions.
Mihelcic brings extensive government technology experience to the position. He spent 18 years at DISA and served as its CTO for more than 12 years, acting as a senior authority on scientific, technical and engineering matters. He also led a technical workforce of more than 900 engineers and scientists.
His appointment comes as federal agencies face an evolving threat environment in which attackers are increasingly using automation and AI. Mihelcic’s role will center on helping organizations continuously test whether their defenses can perform against relevant threats and use the resulting evidence to guide cybersecurity decisions.
