In 1991, I got my first job at 12 years-old working for a Japanese restaurant in Huntsville, AL. I saved my paychecks to build my first custom-built PC, which was a 486 SX/25 with 4MB of RAM, 40 MB HDD, and a 2400 baud modem. This opened the door to my fore into hacking when I discovered Internet Relay Chat and began meeting hackers from around the world. In 1993, my family moved to Seattle where I started my first BBS providing dialup access from users around the world to phone phreaking articles and other hacking tools and exploits I was hosting.

In 1997, I hacked a government network and was arrested at school a few weeks before my 18th birthday with the intent of prosecutors to try me as an adult. However, due to some mistakes made during my arrest, the District Attorney had no choice but to drop the charges. I then started my first company, which I sold to a public company when I was 20 for $2.4 Million in 2000.

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In 2003, I started my second start-up, a cybersecurity software company (Applied Watch). I grew the company to over 100 installations of our network IDS and SIEM and sold it to a public company in 2007 for $4.7 Million in an all-cash deal.

It was at this time in 2008 that I decided to leave the Chicago area and move to San Francisco and started my third start-up, Brier & Thorn. BT began as a defense contractor, supporting counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Afghanistan and Iraq when I was recruited by the U.S. Intelligence Community, which today is still a part of Knight Group.

In 2020, we were approached by a cybersecurity vendor who wanted us to produce a short film, weaving their product into the story arc of the film. Following the success of this film, Mel (my wife) and I decided to pursue filmmaking full time, learning cinematography, lighting, and sound from online courses and YouTube. Now, 4 years later, we've produced 5 television series and own our own TV network at Knight Studios and have won awards at Cannes film festivals and the 44th annual Telly Awards. 

That same year, my first book was published by Wiley on Hacking Connected Cars.
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In 2023, The Mob Museum memorialized my two-decade career in cybersecurity by curating the laptop and gear I used as a hacker into their new cybercrime exhibit. The laptop they curated into the exhibit was the computer I used to hack law enforcement vehicles that demonstrated my ability to take complete control of any LE vehicle on the road.

Today, Knight Group owns and operates 6 companies in its portfolio, Brier & Thorn, a Managed Security Services Provider; Knight Studios, our TV and movie production company; Knight Events, which hosts annual conferences; Knight Publishing, a book publishing company; and Knight Coffee Co., a coffee roastery and reserve company of specialty single origin coffees.

In January of 2024, Knight Studios began pre-production on a new HBO series titled Shadow Unit starring Louis Mandylor.