Steve Shirley serves as executive director of the Defense Department‘s Defense Cyber Crime Center in Linthicum, Maryland, which is a national cybersecurity center that incorporates five organizations.DC3 comprises of the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory, Defense Cyber Investigations Training Academy, Defense Cyber Crime Institute, DC3 Analytical Group and the Defense Industrial Base Collaborative Information Sharing Environment.
Prior to his current position, he served as vice commander of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
The Pentagon says Shirley has also participated in discussions with security officials of defense contractors that later led to a decision by the deputy secretary in 2007 to create a public-private sector sharing model to exchange cyber threat data.
He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 2004 and was appointed to the Senior Executive Service.
Shirley’s military career included service as commander of counterintelligence, antiterrorism and investigative operations at many levels in the Air Force.
He was also a counterintelligence support officer to a unified command and also serve in the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s staff, where he developed positions to protect the military’s  sensitive programs during arms control treaty inspections.
Shirley holds a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, master’s degree from Arizona State University and is also a graduate of the Squadron Officer School, the Air Command and Staff College, the Armed Forces Staff College and the Air War College.
