Greetings Fellow Cyber Nerds & Geeks!

Okay, full disclosure here folks: this is my first "blog post" (or whatever these articles are called these days) so this may be a gruesome first attempt. As you read, think kind thoughts but also know that I crave constructive criticism so at the same time: let me have it. I am going to use this first post to introduce myself to you all, or as someone recently advised: build my "brand" (whatever the hell that means?).

I was born in Buffalo, New York and as my dad worked for the US Army, we moved a fair few times between Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia before migrating back to good old Buffalo in between. As a kid, I was always fascinated with how things work and loved taking things apart (which seems to be a common theme amongst my fellow nerds and geeks). Sure, there were "extra parts" left over, but somehow it always worked after the rebuild. I gained my IT chops on C64's at age 12, where I spent most of my time coding games.

At 18 I joined the USAF, and served 20 years alongside some truly exceptional professionals, and have lasting friendships and a vast network of IT and cyber contacts from within the US military, but also from each of the 20+ countries I had the honor of working and living in around the globe. These 20 years are where I was able to hone my computer and information security tradecraft (then called COMPUSEC), and mostly in OJT (On the Job Training) and self-taught skills.

After retiring from the USAF, my family and I moved back to the USA, where we ended up in Charlottesville, VA. One of my only regrets up to this point was that I did not take full advantage of the military college degree programs, so upon retiring from active duty, I dove head-first into completing my bachelor's degree in Cybersecurity, while also working with an exceptional IT team at a Hospital in C'ville. This role was where I cut my teeth on HIPAA compliance, having worked mainly with FIPS/FISMA/NIST up until this point.

Having lived most of my adult life in the UK, and having a British wife and kids, our family realized that we needed to get back home to England. A position with the US Army opened up in Stuttgart, Germany and I was selected to lead a superb team of IT operations and security professionals. I have to admit that by this point I was missing the camaraderie that the US military provided me for two decades, so it was nice to be back working for Uncle Sam. After two years in Germany, an opportunity back in the UK presented itself, and we moved to Cambridgeshire. Back home!

I spent the next three years working with outstanding operations and security team in Cambridgeshire and was able to build my cyber leadership capabilities further while balancing operational risks within a military intel environment. However, something was missing in my professional life. Up until this point in my career, I had worked primarily in settings where "SPEND THE BUDGET" was the yearly goal, and I found myself yearning for a situation where an unlimited budget was not the reality, and therefore my skills as a risk assessor and leader of teams would be crucial.

Fast-forward to today, where for the last six months I have had opportunities to hone not just risk-related skills, but also provide bespoke cyber advisory and consulting services in an organization that has every cyber function and domain under one roof. Technically we are still a startup here at DarkMatter, but this affords us some perspectives and advantages possibly lost in established agencies. I have worked with a more broad spectrum of clients in the last six months than in my previous 28 years!

Well, that is my professional life summed up. I hope you are all still awake at this point! My plans for future articles include my experiences last year in finding the right organization to continue my career with, and some of the trials and tribulations I experienced in my job hunt. I would also like to provide advice for students of all ages and veterans who are looking to start their own careers in cyber.

A friend told me I should write a book on my experiences, which I plan on doing, but only after I feel comfortable in my writing style. I have a slightly sarcastic side (thanks to living 20 years in the UK, and growing up watching Monty Python), and I want to explore how well this method relates to cyber. I think it will relate fairly well if judging by whom I count as real friends in this industry is any indicator.

#cybervaccinate