James Smith

I grew up in Alaska and joined the military. I started in Intelligence and went on to spend time as a Special Forces Green Beret. I now serve in the National Guard part time and have spent time as a military aviator and now work as a member of a Cyber Protection Team, A Senior Cyber Security Engineer for a Chicago based company and part time adjunct professor. I was also briefly an Airline Pilot. I started in Information Security in the 90’s when some friends and I discovered Win Nuke and Back Orifice. It started a passion that was always in the background of other career choices until I decided to bring it to the foreground as my only career. That decision came while flying cross country in an airliner bored out of my mind and I started reading, "The Art of Exploitation" and instantly realized I needed to follow my passion completely.