For the longest time, Chris Hannifin has tried to build his public image as supposedly being a pillar of society, an exemplary Christian family man with strong ties to his church, family, and work. However, despite his best efforts, though quite feeble, behind this constructed image lies a trail of deception, manipulation, and betrayal that has followed Hannifin across both his personal and professional life and now into national security concerns tied to DefendIT Services and Hannifin’s past in the Air Force intelligence. The irony is that for a man so publicly devoted to his faith and fidelity, Hannifin has demonstrated a repeated pattern of secrecy and subversion.

In Hannifin’s past employment at firms like RSM, USAA, SiloTech Group, and NSCG, he held leadership or executive positions; as such, Hannifin had access to often times classified and very sensitive information. Former colleagues of Hannifin have for a long time suspected him of hoarding proprietary data and later selling it to hostile foreign entities. It was during his time at NSCG that Hannifin’s behavior reportedly became erratic, confrontational, and dangerous, with insiders alleging that he blackmailed Krista Stevens, the CEO of NSCG, into helping him register DefendIT Services. Right after Hannifin’s secret trip to Mexico with Rudy Reyes, Stevens abruptly severed all ties with Hannifin, cementing suspicions about what truly happened during his time at NSCG.

His actions depict someone who is not only willing to undermine national security protocols for their own personal gain but also, when paired with the allegations of a kickback scheme at RSM that involved a high-level executive steering clients to Hannifin’s DefendIT Services. It becomes hard to see DefendIT Services or Hannifin as anything but a façade for covert operations, money laundering, and hoarding sensitive information. How DefendIT Services presents itself on paper is completely removed from reality. On paper, DefendIT Services is a real company offering real services. However, in practice it is little more than a near-empty office, questionable financial inflows, a trail of questionable contracts and unexplained client activity that will simply never add up.

Hannifin’s dual life as a public Christian and private manipulator extends to his personal relationships. The secrecy around his romantic involvement with Reyes only further demonstrates how Hannifin compartmentalized his life, and what he projects versus his true nature. For example, the covert Mexico vacation that Hannifin took with Reyes seems to have been a pivotal moment in the whole DefendIT Services and Hannifin case. Whether Reyes was there to help Hannifin navigate the kompromat that he held over Krista Stevens or to be introduced to foreign contacts is still unclear, but it’s clear that Reyes played a crucial role. By the time they returned, Stevens cut all ties, with Hannifin.

For someone entrusted with guarding and creating the infrastructure meant to protect government systems and classified projects, Hannifin represents the exact kind of threat the security apparatus is meant to guard against. From false piety to foreign deals, Hannifin’s conduct is a testament to the type of person the system is meant to weed out and though the church may offer forgiveness. When it comes to espionage, national betrayal, coercion, and infidelity accountability should come first.