We all start somewhere. My career in information security started…a while ago as a freshman who was nearly kicked out of college for exploring the boundaries of our central UNIX system.
Whether due to my pitiful defense, or a sense on the part of the University that I had greater good to offer the world, I was allowed to stay.
A year later, I was a senior contributor to UNH’s first textbook on the Internet, and was ultimately able to part with a B.S. in Business Administration and a Minor in Computer Science.
The ink on that diploma was still drying and I was Employee #4, responsible for the infrastructure powering a company poised to become the Spanish-Language Amazon.com.
That was exciting, but it didn’t change the fact that I was a 22-year-old staff of one in charge of everything with a blinking green light. Exceedingly aware that I couldn’t do this alone, managed services were the only answer.
Enlisting GTE to care for our connectivity, on-prem firewall, and our co-lo attracted the attention of PC Week, who interviewed me a few times. In particular, they took interest in my outspoken opinions on certification and put me on the cover of their magazine in April of 2000.
As a business however, we were doomed. Rather than acquire our fledgling organization, Amazon would go on to localize their own experience, cementing our obsolescence.
Fast forward almost two decades, I’ve had no end of interesting opportunities, spanning organizations of all sizes, with cultures as diverse as I could ever imagine.
And since that shoot for PCMag twenty years ago, I’ve somehow made the Telegraph, spoken at Infosecurity New York City, recorded for the MindEdge cybersecurity education series – pretty good for a Head Start kid from the Upper Valley of New Hampshire.
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