Howard A. Schmidt has had a long distinguished career in defense, law enforcement and corporate security spanning almost 40 years. He has served as Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist for online auction giant eBay. He most recently served in the position of Chief Security Strategist for the US CERT Partners Program for the National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security.

He retired from the White House after 31 years of public service in local and federal government. He was appointed by President Bush as the Vice Chair of the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as the Special Adviser for Cyberspace Security for the White House in December 2001. He assumed the role as the Chair in January 2003 until his retirement in May 2003.

Prior to the White House, Howard was chief security officer for Microsoft Corp., where his duties included CISO, CSO and forming and directing the Trustworthy Computing Security Strategies Group.

Before Microsoft, Mr. Schmidt was a supervisory special agent and director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare Division. While there, he established the first dedicated computer forensic lab in the government.

Before AFOSI, Mr. Schmidt was with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center, where he headed the Computer Exploitation Team. He is recognized as one of the pioneers in the field of computer forensics and computer evidence collection. Before working at the FBI, Mr. Schmidt was a city police officer from 1983 to 1994 for the Chandler Police Department in Arizona.

Mr. Schmidt served with the U.S. Air Force in various roles from 1967 to 1983, both in active duty and in the civil service. He had served in the Arizona Air National Guard from 1989 until 1998 when he transferred to the U.S. Army Reserves as a Special Agent, Criminal Investigation Division where he continues to serve. He has testified as an expert witness in federal and military courts in the areas of computer crime, computer forensics and Internet crime.

Mr. Schmidt also serves as the international president of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and was the first president of the Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IT-ISAC). He is a former executive board member of the International Organization of Computer Evidence, and served as the co-chairman of the Federal Computer Investigations Committee. He is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists. He had served as a board member for the CyberCrime Advisory Board of the National White Collar Crime Center, and was a distinguished special lecturer at the University of New Haven, Conn., teaching a graduate certificate course in forensic computing.

He served as an augmented member to the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology in the formation of an Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection. He has testified before congressional committees on computer security and cyber crime, and has been instrumental in the creation of public and private partnerships and information-sharing initiatives. He is regularly featured on CNN, CNBC, Fox TV as well as a number of local media outlets talking about cyber-security. He is a co-author of the Black Book on Corporate Security and author of “Patrolling CyberSpace, Lessons Learned from a Lifetime in Data Security”.

Mr. Schmidt has been appointed to the Information Security Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) to advise the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on information security and privacy issues pertaining to Federal Government information systems.

Howard holds board positions on a number of corporate boards in both an advisory and director positions and recently has assumed the role as Chairman of the Board for Electronics Lifestyle Integration (ELI).

Mr. Schmidt holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration (BSBA) and a master’s degree in organizational management (MAOM) from the University of Phoenix. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters. Howard is a Professor of Practice at GA Tech, GTISC and Adjunct Senior Fellow with Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab.

 

For more than twelve years, Jim Reavis has worked in the information security industry as an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, technologist and business strategist. His original articles about emerging security trends have been published by Information Security Magazine, InfoWorld, Network World, SANS and Secure Computing Magazine, among others.

Jim is the President of Reavis Consulting Group and editor of the CSOinformer newsletter. Jim is an international board member of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), the world's largest not-for-profit association of information security professionals. Jim currently serves in an advisory capacity for many of the industry's most successful companies.

Jim founded SecurityPortal in 1998 and has been an advisor on the launch of many industry ventures. Jim has been interviewed for TV, radio and print by TechTV, CNN, CRN, InternetWeek, Interactive Week and CNET and has worked with hundreds of corporations on their information security strategy and technology roadmap. Jim was also formerly Chief Marketing Officer for VIGILANTe, a European security software company. Jim received a B.A. in Business Administration / Computer Science from Western Washington University in 1987 and began his career shortly thereafter as the MIS Manager for InterWest Bank, now part of Wells Fargo.

Jennifer Fischer
Director
VISA USA

Jennifer Fischer is a Director with Visa USA, responsible for the Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP). Jennifer manages Visa's CISP data security initiative and her team is responsible for driving compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Jennifer's has been focused on CISP since 2001 when Visa began requiring merchants to validate their compliance with the CISP data security requirements. Over the past five years, she has been involved in the enhancements of the program requirements and development of the PCI DSS. 

 

William Geimer
Director of Information Assurance, Open System Sciences
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

Steve B. Lipner
Senior Director of Security Engineering Strategy, Security Business Unit,
Microsoft Corporation

Steven B. Lipner is Senior Director of Security Engineering Strategy at Microsoft. He is responsible for the definition and implementation of the Security Development Lifecycle that focuses on improving the security of Microsoft's products. Mr. Lipner has over thirty years' experience as a researcher, development manager, and general manager in IT security. He holds S.B. and S.M. degrees from M.I.T. and attended the Harvard Business School's Program for Management Development .

 

Caleb Sima
Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer, Director of SPI Labs,
SPI Dynamics