The Rise of the Infosecurity Professional

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Howard Schmidt on his appointment as White House Cybersecurity Coordinator today, the nation’s top cybersecurity post.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Maples Communications has worked with Howard for several years in his capacity as both a board member and spokesperson for our client (ISC)², the largest organization of information security professionals in the world with over 66,000 members in over 140 countries.

In addition to being a big day for Howard, this is a big day for (ISC)² and all infosecurity professionals. 

When Maples started with (ISC)² nine years ago, membership was less than 3,000 and the first paid employee had just been hired. In those early days, an information security professional couldn’t get the attention of the IT manager, much less the President of the United States. Getting the attention of the media regarding information security was a very tough task as well.

But through the years, and by working closely with great people at the organization such as Jim Wade, Randy Sanovic, Pat Myers, Howard and many others, including current Executive Director Hord Tipton, we slowly but surely made headway. 

Now a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) has a seat at the table of the highest office in the land. To me, and to many others I’m sure, this means the profession and the organization have arrived. 

All the issues that these top professionals have diligently been working on for years will now have a voice in Howard and will hopefully get our country implementing cybersecurity best practices in every business, government agency and household. To go along with his obviously deep understanding of security, Howard has an uncanny ability to bring people together and is a tremendous communicator who’s generally fearless to the task at hand. He will be an asset to the country.

And just as Maples Communications worked hard with its client to see this day happen, we look forward to working with any infosecurity company that has a solid new approach that needs to be heard.

Tags: cissp, cybersecurity coordinator, howard schmidt, isc2, maples communications, public relations, white house