01:05
Michael Echols Highlight
Understand what bothers you, understand what gets you down, then build a box around it...The funny part about that is, that's exactly what we should be doing in cybersecurity.
About Michael
- Grew up “dirt poor” in Alabama, but luckily, he earned a scholarship to a very prestigious private high school that set him up for a successful college experience.
- Originally, he worked in engineering; he owned his own company up until 9/11, when the stock market crash drove his company into the ground.
- He had to start his career path over again, and the only job he could get was working as a TSA screener at the airport.
- Clients he’d previously worked with would come through the airport; they were shocked to see him working as a screener, and treated him like he’d had a fall from grace.
- He says that feeding off of something painful or discomforting with give you the fire you need to keep going; his experiences as a screener motivated him to work his way out of that position.
- Within six months, he’d been promoted to a position at TSA headquarters; while there, he developed an interoperability for technology systems at the 2004 Super Bowl.
- But after developing that majorly successful system, he actually felt like he had to fight to prove himself even harder, so he went back to school to get a master’s in business administration.
- He’s since held prominent positions in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and worked closely with former president Barack Obama to encourage cyberthreat information sharing.
