Mike Malone

Mike Malone is the Founder and CEO of Smallstep, where he leads efforts to bring Zero Trust security to organizations by making device identity a fundamental cybersecurity primitive. A software engineer by training, Mike’s career has spanned the rise of SaaS and cloud computing: he worked on distributed systems like Apache Cassandra, helped shape modern identity standards such as OAuth and OpenID, and has held senior technical leadership roles including Lead Architect and CTO. He has also published on cybersecurity policy, bridging the gap between deep technical practice and strategic issues in technology. At Smallstep, Mike is focused on enabling organizations to enforce trusted-device access policies with high-assurance, standards-based cryptographic mechanisms.