Citizen-Warrior of month: Vermont cyber-security expert

https://www.army.mil/article/197597/citizen_warrior_of_month_vermont_cyber_security_expert

Air Force Major Jack Skoda, a cyber defense instructor in Vermont Air National Guard’s Information Operations Squadron, believes that cyberspace is “all around us, all the time.” I found it interesting how he likens cyber defense specialists as having the same attributes as military minds. His thoughts are that “they understood their domain, and they used that understanding to bring the effect they needed at the time of their choosing to win decisively,” said Skoda. “And that doesn’t change in cyber.” Major Skoda teaches Cyber Security in the military and a local community college and switched his mentality accordingly. Military personnel are problem solving, they are already thinking about budget, number of people to get a job done and how long a specific task may or may not take whereas a traditional college student doesn’t have that experience. He uses his military experience to emphasize why security protocols are important. underlying message to all his students remains consistent: know your trade, frontwards and backwards. That is why there is a shortage of warriors like him in cyber-security – the ones who have mastered this trade.