Howard A. Schmidt

Howard Schmidt joined Trident Capital as a Venture Consultant in May 2003. Howard is currently on the board of Trident portfolio company Neohapsis and serves as an advisor from time to time on other portfolio companies.

Howard has had a long and distinguished career in defense, law enforsement and corporate security spanning almost 40 years, He currently is President of the Information Security Forum (ISF). Previously he was Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist for sBay. He has served in the position of Chief Security Strategist for the US CERT Partners Progran for the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security. From 2001 to 2003, Howard served in the White House as Vice Chair and then Chair of the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as the Special Advisor for Cyberspace Security. Prior to his role at the White House, Howard was the Chief Security Officer for Microsoft Corporation, where he oversaw the Security Strategies group, ensuring the development of a trusted computing environment via auditing, policy, best practices and incubation of security products and practices.

In his career in law enforcement, computer forensics and IT Security, Howard has served as Supervisory Special Agent, Director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare. (HQ AFOSI/CCI); head of the Computer Exploitation Team as a Computer Forensic Specialist for the FBI a municipal police officer; an instructor at the FBI Academy; and a special investigator for the US Army Reserves. He is a current or former executive or board member on numerous national and international IT Security and Forensic Science organizations.

Mr. Schmidt 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 member of the board of Directors for (ISC)2 and Security Strategist for the board. 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 Cyber Crime Advisory Board of the National White Collar Crime Center.

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 cable, broadcast and international media talking about cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection. He is a co-author of the Black Book on Corporate Security and author of “Patrolling Cyber Space, 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. He has also been appointed as a member of the Permanent Stakeholders Group (PSG) for the European Network Information Security Agency. (ENISA). He is a member of the High Level Experts Group (HLEG) for the ITU and the Global Cyber-security Agenda.

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, Professor of Research at Idaho State University and Adjunct Distinguished Fellow with Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab and a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Institute.

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