Daniel W. Sutherland

Daniel W. Sutherland is of counsel at Dunlap, Bennett & Ludwig. Mr.Sutherland supports our clients through his experiences as a senior cybersecurity attorney at one of the world’s most influential companies and at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Mr. Sutherland led the cybersecurity legal team at Meta. He supported Guy Rosen, Meta’s legendary Chief Information Security Officer, and the global Security organization. In this role, Mr. Sutherland developed a thorough understanding of the global cybersecurity legal and regulatory landscape, and translated that into specific tools, practices..., and policies that security engineering and product management teams then put into place.

He also helped develop a mature governance, risk and compliance program; ensured company leadership and the Board of Directors were adequately advised on cybersecurity risk management; led and facilitated tabletop exercises; and, conducted internal investigations that helped set the direction for Meta’s security missions. Mr. Sutherland led a legal team located in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, London, Dublin and Singapore.

Prior to his role at Meta, Mr. Sutherland helped launch CISA, the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency, and served as the agency’s first Chief Counsel. His office negotiated complex technology agreements; provided daily operational support to the agency’s experts in threat hunting, vulnerability management, election security, and others; advocated the agency’s positions in litigation; drafted and negotiated legislation; and,
responded to audits and investigations.

Mr. Sutherland was engaged in most of the major cyber incidents of the past decade, including the OPM breach, the threats to election infrastructure, the SolarWinds breach, the Microsoft Exchange server attack, and the epidemic of ransomware. He led the response to the risks posed by the Kaspersky Lab and helped create frameworks to analyze
nation-state threats to the security of supply chains. His office drafted and negotiated several major pieces of cybersecurity legislation, including the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018.

Mr. Sutherland’s career in cybersecurity builds on his earlier work as a specialist in civil rights and civil liberties issues. In 2003, Mr. Sutherland was appointed by President Bush to serve as the first Officer for Civil
Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, where he advised Secretaries Ridge and Chertoff on a wide range of security issues, including advice on enhancing transportation security policies; outreach to religious, ethnic and racial minority communities; watchlisting; cybersecurity; immigration law and policy; accessibility of information technology; and, emergency management. His speech on the need for the government to engage with American Arab and Muslim communities appeared in the publication Vital Speeches of the Day.

Mr. Sutherland later served in the Senior National Intelligence Service where he coordinated the government’s efforts to prevent violent extremism; Wired referred to him as “one of the government’s point people on stemming the appeal of al-Qaida.”

His areas of expertise includes:

• Ensuring companies have comprehensive security programs that are designed to meet the particular needs and
• capabilities of the company while meeting regulatory expectations
• Effectively communicating with company leadership and Boards of Directors regarding technology risk
• Designing strong Governance, Risk, and Compliance functions, including with respect to AI programs
• Understanding and mitigating supply chain and geopolitical security risks
• Ensuring companies proactively mitigate any civil rights or civil liberties concerns that could be posed by their
• products or services, including their use of AI tools
• Building relationships with key government agencies
• Creating and promoting a security culture within a company