National Security Advisory – Washington, D.C. & San Francisco
Clarity in a
Complex World
In an era defined by accelerating threats, shifting alliances, and unprecedented geopolitical complexity, the margin for miscalculation has never been narrower.
Aurora Canyon Advisers delivers focused, senior-level counsel drawn from decades of experience at the center of the nation’s most consequential national security decisions.
Depth of Experience
Careers built at the highest levels of American national security
Our principals did not study these threats from the outside. They led the investigations, ran the operations, and briefed the senior officials across the intelligence community to include the White House. Combined, they bring over six decades of senior executive service across the FBI, CIA, National Security Council, Department of Defense, and the National Counterterrorism Center – including sustained operational partnerships with Five Eyes intelligence services.
That record is not just a credential. It is the difference between analysis and judgment — and in national security, judgment is what matters. Clients engage us for the person who has been in the room, not a secondhand account of it.
FBI Senior Executive Service — Counterintelligence
Deputy Assistant Director • Special Agent in Charge • Division Chief
Central Intelligence Agency — Chief of Counterespionage
Senior FBI executive detailed to CIA at division chief level
National Security Council — The White House
Director of Counterintelligence • Senior policy advisor to the President
National Counterterrorism Center — Director
Advising the President • DNI • cabinet officials on global terrorism threat
National Honors & Awards
Attorney General’s Award • National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal • FBI Director’s Award
Congressional Testimony & Five Eyes Liaison
Sworn testimony before Congress • Sustained operational partnerships with UK, Canada, Australia & New Zealand
The Aurora Canyon Advantage
Our Model. Built for the problem.
Aurora Canyon Advisers was founded on a straightforward premise: that the most consequential security challenges deserve direct engagement with the most experienced people available. Our principals lead every client relationship — from first conversation through final deliverable.
Where engagements require deep technical expertise — in cybersecurity, cyber threat analysis, or specialized operational disciplines — we draw on a curated network of cleared subject matter experts who work alongside our principals. Clients receive both the strategic judgment of former senior government executives and the practitioner-grade depth that complex problems demand.
Direct Principal Access
At Aurora Canyon, every engagement is led by the principals. You work directly with the people whose judgment and experience you sought out from the start.
Tailored, Not Templated
We build bespoke counsel around your specific threat environment and strategic goals — never adapted from a standard industry playbook.
Lean & Confidential
Boutique by design. Every engagement benefits from the speed, discretion, and direct communication that come with a small, senior team.
The Principals
Senior leaders. Proven judgment.
Jill Murphy
Principal Security and Risk Advisor
A former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Chief of Counterespionage at the CIA, and NSC Director of Counterintelligence at the White House, Jill brings more than a decade of leadership across the nation’s most sensitive counterintelligence programs.
Her career spans coordinated joint operations across the full U.S. intelligence community and senior-level engagement with Five Eyes partner services. Her counterintelligence portfolio extended into cyber-enabled espionage and nation-state digital threats — where intelligence tradecraft and cybersecurity intersect.
She also brings a forward-looking perspective on emerging technology, developed through her work with Army Futures Command and the innovation ecosystem in Austin, Texas.
Craig Fair
Principal Security and Risk Advisor
With more than 25 years of federal law enforcement and domestic intelligence experience, Craig served in various roles with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He most recently served as the Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Division of the FBI, the 5th largest FBI office in the Department of Justice. Additionally, Craig served in the FBI’s national security arena as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate as well as running counterterrorism operations in Northern California.
Presently, Craig is a co-founder, along with Harvard University, of a new and novel system which separates and detects illicit narcotics at the molecular level. Additionally, Craig serves as a contractor for Department of Defense facilitating international capacity building efforts in the eastern Europe and the former Soviet territories pertaining to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear mitigation.
Craig brings years of leadership experience at various levels of the organization and works with partner organizations on leadership development, threat/hazard/risk evaluations and consulting, strategic planning, and crisis management.
Christine Abizaid
Principal Security and Risk Advisor
Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), advising the President and cabinet on the global terrorism threat. Government career spans leadership roles in the Intelligence Community, at the National Security Council, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Private sector experience includes several tech sector roles leading global teams covering geopolitical risk, supply chain assurance, safety policy and responsibility; advisory services to small and large defense, aerospace and technology companies; and service on multiple Boards of Directors. Recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.
What We Do
Strategic capabilities across the full spectrum of risk
Analytical rigor and operational instinct drawn from decades at the center of the nation’s most consequential security decisions.
Insider Threat, IP Protection & Cyber Intelligence
Protecting your most valuable assets requires more than technical controls. Aurora Canyon advises on intellectual property protection and insider threat programs — combining counterintelligence tradecraft with hands-on cyber expertise from our network of cleared specialists. We address the human, structural, and technical vulnerabilities that compliance frameworks routinely miss, informed by decades of experience investigating these threats from the government side.
Geopolitical Risk Advisory
Sound decisions in contested markets require more than news monitoring and country reports. Aurora Canyon delivers geopolitical risk assessments, scenario analysis, and strategic threat briefings drawn directly from careers spent shaping U.S. national security policy at the highest levels. We help boards, executives, and investors understand not just what is happening — but what it means for their specific exposure, and what comes next.
Crisis Management
Crisis response is not a moment to learn on the job. Aurora Canyon principals have managed some of the most consequential security incidents in recent U.S. history — at the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the White House. We help organizations prepare crisis frameworks before they are needed. Our counsel is operational, not theoretical, and informed by experience that most advisers can only describe from the outside.
Every Engagement Begins With a Conversation
Every engagement begins with a confidential conversation. Share your challenge and we will respond with clarity, discretion, and a direct path forward.