Mike Prado

Mike Prado is a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and currently serves as the acting Assistant Director of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Cyber and Operational Technology (COT) Division. He is also the permanent Deputy Assistant Director of the DHS Cyber Crimes Center (C3), which utilizes cutting-edge technology and 21st century investigative techniques to combat cyber and cyber-facilitated transnational criminal activity. C3 supports all HSI domestic and international field offices in a broad spectrum of cyber investigations, including online child sexual exploitation and abuse, network intrusion, and illicit activity on the dark web, to include narcotics and weapons trafficking. C3 also oversees HSI’s Computer Forensics program and maintains programmatic oversight and coordination of all cyber training, outreach, and specialized solutions to counter illicit use of technologies. As acting Assistant Director of COT, he also manages HSI’s information technology programs and initiatives, including the HSI Innovation Laboratory, which forms the agency’s centralized hub for the development of advanced analytic capabilities and artificial intelligence tools and leads the COT Technical Operations Unit, which provides innovative electronic surveillance equipment and methods to HSI for criminal investigations and national security operations. He also manages all electronic intercepts and oversees statistical reporting and data quality analysis for HSI.

Mr. Prado was previously the Deputy Special Agent in Charge of HSI Charlotte and the Carolinas. He has served as the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff for the Deputy Director and Director of ICE, respectively and served as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the HSI Washington DC office and Division Chief of C3. Other positions he has held include serving as a congressional liaison, Chief of Domestic Operations, and Resident Agent in Charge of the California Central Valley. Mr. Prado is a graduate of the DHS Senior Executive Service Career Development Program, where he completed an assignment as Deputy Director of the DHS Joint Requirements Council. Mr. Prado has over 25 years of law enforcement experience, beginning his career as an investigator with the Tulare County (CA) District Attorney’s Office in 1999, and the U.S. Customs Service Office of Investigations in 2002. Mr. Prado holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Sonoma State University.