U.S. Air Force Brat
I was a U.S. Air Force "brat" (military dependent), born on an
Air Force nuclear missile (ICBM) base during the Cold War
while my father, an Air Force officer, was manning a missile
silo, and I was raised on Air Force bases throughout the
United States and in Japan.
(Interestingly, regarding ICBMs, a few years ago my wife,
daughter, and I lived among active silos in Montana and while
I was at MIT I did some mathematical modeling of nuclear war
scenarios with Russia, including learning about radioactive
fallout and the effects of radiation on humans.)
While this may not seem like a "credential", military brats
grow up thinking about security, particularly when stationed
overseas. They are issued IDs, which are checked frequently,
long before most kids get their driver's license. Security
becomes ingrained in them.
My years of work with U.S. Government supercomputers at NASA
and ARSC, a Department of Defense facility, required security
clearance. My brother, a former police officer, is an ICE
agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
During 9/11, I was living in Manhattan, New York City (getting
a
Ph.D. from
Columbia and NASA GISS in supercomputing), where both
World Trade Center towers were brought down by foreign
terrorists in hijacked airliners. This brought the issue of
security close to home for me, particularly IT and security
since
9/11
Was Due to IT Incompetence.
Being a U.S. citizen is itself a credential. Having
foreigners do IT work, which always includes security, is
dangerously foolish; see
IT
Hiring: Foreigners in
Principles of
IT Incompetence.
Finally, my education as a U.S. Air Force brat led to me being
valedictorian of my high school in New York.
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