Qryptonic LLC today disclosed the nine senior leaders and advisors shaping its Q-Scout cryptographic discovery platform, Q-Strike penetration testing, Q-Solve advisory services, and LLM26 orchestration model. LLM26 is a 70-billion-parameter system specialized on quantum physics, cryptography, and cybersecurity that designs Q-Strike test campaigns and interprets Q-Scout findings. Research findings and product upgrades will follow in the coming weeks.
The Team Behind the Methodology
Nuclear Command and Strategic Systems
Lt. Gen. Mark E. Weatherington, USAF (Ret.) is Chairman of Qryptonic’s Defense Innovation Council. He retired in September 2023 after 33 years in the U.S. Air Force, culminating as Deputy Commander of Air Force Global Strike Command and Deputy Commander of Air Forces Strategic-Air, U.S. Strategic Command. He oversaw operations for America’s ICBM and bomber forces, where cryptographic integrity is non-negotiable.
Federal Cyber and Critical Infrastructure
Dr. David Mussington served as Executive Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security at CISA from 2021 until January 2025, managing a budget of more than $200 million and leading resilience strategies across all 16 critical infrastructure sectors. He is now Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.
Karl Perman is a critical-infrastructure security specialist and author of multiple books on NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection standards. He ensures Q-Scout and Q-Strike findings translate into audit-ready documentation for power sector and other critical infrastructure clients.
Intelligence Community
Garrett Melich spent nearly 24 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, serving as Deputy Director for Cyber and Digital Policy. He coordinated cyber strategy across the White House, Pentagon, and Intelligence Community.
Brian Sample is a retired Senior Executive Service leader from the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he directed an $80 million technology operations portfolio and a $50 million research and development portfolio.
Enterprise Technology and Cloud
Isaura S. Gaeta retired from Intel Corporation after more than 40 years, most recently as Vice President and General Manager of Security Research. She led the team responsible for hardware penetration testing and physical attack research across all Intel product lines.
Peter Renner is Vice Chairman of Qryptonic. He is also a Global Client CTO at Microsoft, advising the company’s largest enterprise customers on Azure, Microsoft 365, and security architecture. His decade of experience with hyperscale cloud environments shapes how Q-Scout handles cryptographic discovery in complex, multi-tenant deployments.
Healthcare and Regulated Industries
Ian Schneller served as Divisional Senior Vice President and CISO at Health Care Service Corporation, one of the largest U.S. health insurers, managing security for tens of millions of member records. His two decades in Air Force and DoD cyber roles preceded that.
National Laboratories and Research
Eliot Jung is Vice Chairman, Cybersecurity Strategy at Qryptonic. He is also a cybersecurity specialist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and faculty member at Georgetown University. His background spans national laboratory operations, financial-sector threat intelligence, and academic research.
“I spent my career in environments where encryption failure means mission failure. Period,” said Lt. Gen. Mark E. Weatherington, USAF (Ret.), Chairman of Qryptonic’s Defense Innovation Council. “Qryptonic applies that standard to enterprise systems. Most organizations have no idea how exposed they are.”
“Forty years in semiconductors taught me that vulnerabilities hide where people stop looking,” said Isaura S. Gaeta. “Most cryptographic assessments never get below the application layer. Ours do.”
“The question isn’t whether quantum disruption will reshape cybersecurity. It’s whether leadership teams have a plan in place before that moment arrives,” said Dr. David Mussington. “Qryptonic is helping close that gap.”
About Qryptonic
Most cryptographic assessments simulate quantum attacks. Qryptonic executes them on live quantum hardware across multiple cloud providers.
The company’s Q-Strike platform orchestrates simultaneous testing, exposing vulnerabilities that traditional tools miss. That approach has uncovered more than 300 significant cryptographic weaknesses in Fortune 500 environments.
Q-Scout maps where cryptography actually runs across cloud, data center, and operational technology systems. Q-Solve translates findings into migration roadmaps and board-ready strategy. LLM26, a 70-billion-parameter model specialized on quantum physics, cryptography, and cybersecurity, designs test campaigns and interprets results.
Qryptonic backs its methodology with up to $2,000,000 in Cryptographic Reliability Guarantees for qualified engagements.
The company is headquartered in Miami with a research center in Be’er Sheva, Israel. Mission: Post-Quantum Ready, Permanently™.
Coming Next
Over the coming weeks, Qryptonic will publish findings from its 2025 enterprise cryptographic assessments and announce material upgrades to Q-Scout, Q-Strike, Q-Solve, and LLM26. Research topics include cryptographic visibility gaps, algorithm distribution across enterprise environments, and quantum readiness benchmarks for boards and regulators.
