Torry Crass
State Chief Risk Officer
State of North Carolina
Torry Crass is the State Chief Risk Officer for the State of North Carolina serving as an executive leader within the N.C. Department of Information Technology since May of 2023. In his role, he leads the Enterprise Security and Risk Management Office with focus on increasing the cyber maturity of the state and strengthening the “Whole of State” approach to cybersecurity along with local, state, and federal partners as well as serving on various advisory boards and committees in his official capacity.
Torry has over 25 years of experience in IT and over a decade focused on cybersecurity working with everything from technology startups through Fortune 500 organizations. Immediately prior to his current role, he spent 4 years on contract as the Agency CISO for the N.C. State Board of Elections.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science and Technology from The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
In addition, Torry has broad involvement in the cybersecurity community serving in various ways to include in board and advisory board roles such as Board of Directors Chair for the BSides Charlotte cybersecurity conference, Co-Founder of the ShieldCon conference, Staff at BSides Las Vegas security conference, Cyber Camp Program Director for the InfraGard National Members Alliance and Recipient of the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award (2020) for this work. He serves as Exercise Staff for Cyber Shield, the DoD’s largest cybersecurity exercise, an officer in the South Carolina State Guard, and as an Adjunct Instructor for the DoD, Army Cyber Institute summer program at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.