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Built by practitioners, powered by purpose.
Our team of seasoned security specialists works tirelessly to protect organizations from emerging threats.
A leadership team of 50+ years combined experience across offensive security, systems engineering, mission-critical government programs, and cybersecurity go-to-market — with hands-on tradecraft that shows up in every engagement.
CEORich Leichty
Richard Leichty is a cybersecurity executive and systems engineer with over 20 years of experience leading mission-focused solutions across government and private sectors. As CEO and Lead Systems Engineer of NightShade Technologies, he drives offensive cybersecurity innovation, specializing in threat intelligence, cyber threat analysis, systems security, and digital forensics.
Previously a Vice President of R&D, Rich led corporate research initiatives and advised on emerging threats, regulatory risk, and advanced capabilities — with experience spanning executive leadership, malware analysis, and military and intelligence operations. He holds degrees in IT and cybersecurity and remains active in community education and nonprofit leadership supporting health technology and pediatric cancer research in Central Florida.
CTOSteve Lackey
Steve Lackey is the Chief Technology Officer and Lead Penetration Tester at NightShade Technologies, with over 30 years of experience securing, hardening, and architecting complex systems across state and federal government and commercial environments. He has led advanced cybersecurity initiatives, built penetration testing programs, and conducted full-spectrum red and blue team operations — specializing across the full security lifecycle from vulnerability research and exploit development to adversarial testing and securing AI systems.
A hands-on technical leader, Steve serves as a Teaching Assistant at Harvard Extension School for ethical hacking and penetration testing. He is an active Synack Red Team member, contributes to bug bounty programs, has published exploits on Exploit-DB, and stays deeply engaged with the community through Defcon, Black Hat, BSides, and CTFs — driving NightShade's innovation at the intersection of offensive security and AI.
COOMichael Connell
Michael Connell is a senior business development and growth strategy executive with deep experience leading capture, proposal operations, and go-to-market strategy across the cybersecurity sector in federal and intelligence community environments. He specializes in building disciplined, repeatable growth engines that align technical delivery, partnerships, and mission needs into scalable, high-performing business development operations.
Throughout his career, Michael has led enterprise growth initiatives across DoD, Intelligence Community, and federal civilian customers — establishing end-to-end BD lifecycles, strengthening capture rigor, and implementing data-driven pipeline governance. With hands-on experience in requirements analysis, Agile delivery, and execution in classified environments, he bridges strategy with operations, building trusted executive relationships, structuring strategic partnerships, and enabling teams to deliver predictable, measurable outcomes.
Credentials that Prove Tradecraft.
NightShade operators hold and continually pursue the industry's most demanding hands-on certifications — the kind that require kernel-level exploit development, active-directory red teaming, and full-scope web/application exploitation to earn.
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