Torry Crass

State Chief Risk Officer

Torry Crass joined the N.C. Department of Information Technology as the state chief risk officer in May 2023. In his role, he focuses on increasing the cyber maturity of the state and strengthening NCDIT’s whole-of-state approach to cybersecurity with local, state and federal partners. As part of these responsibilities, he leads NCDIT’s Enterprise Security and Risk Management Office.

Crass also serves as one of 16 elected members from across the country on the Executive Committee of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), which helps set policy and direction aimed at improving and facilitating the maturity of the overall cybersecurity posture of the nation’s state, local, tribal and territorial governments. 

Crass brings more than 25 years of experience in IT and more than a decade focused on cybersecurity in global enterprise environments.  

Previously, he served for nearly four years as chief information security officer for the N.C. State Board of Elections. He also has more than 20 years of experience in private-sector IT, including as a CISO for LEO Cyber Security and senior lead of information security and interim CISO for SPX Corporation.  

Crass has served as an officer in the South Carolina State Guard since 2016 and works with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, providing various trainings and leading incident response missions.  

His work also extends to The Citadel, where he helps train National Guard soldiers on various cybersecurity focuses. He is also a member of exercise staff for Cyber Shield, the U.S. Department of Defense’s largest and longest running cybersecurity exercise. He co-founded and leads a conference during this exercise called ShieldCon.  

Crass also has a strong focus on student outreach and volunteers as the director for the InfraGard National Cyber Camp program. For this work, he received the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award, the FBI’s highest civilian honor, in 2020.  

In addition, he is involved in several community-based security conferences, including BSides Charlotte where he serves as the chair of the board of directors.