Stepping up to the plate. Those who can, do. Leading by example.  Walking the walk

All of us have heard those sayings and many of us have been fortunate to witness examples of theses sayings. My company, The Open Source Technology Alliance (TOSTA) is partnering with UMSA on a grant proposal to the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership program. Funding from the grant will be used to create a comprehensive cyber security curriculum and training  program. Organizations that choose to participate in the grant proposal can send employees to the training at no cost other than paying the employees salary and benefits.

Midpoint Technologies is one of the organizations who chose to participate in the grant proposal. I scheduled a meeting with John Ford, managing director at Midpoint Technology, Inc. to personally thank him for participating in the grant proposal. Prior to our meeting I was not fully aware that John was a member of UMSA’s Board and I certainly didn’t know he would be the next UMSA president. I met John back when the Minnesota chapter of ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) was having their standing room only meetings at the Fort Snelling Officers Club in the late 1980s. I also ran into John at ISSA’s first security conference in the early 1990s that was held in a single room at the Thunderbird Motel and during his time at Midave Corporation.

In our meeting John said he fully supported the UMSA/TOSTA partnership. The cyber security training would help UMSA fulfill its mission to educate UMSA members. I think it is important to recognize this positive decision making. Score 1 for UMSA member organizations, Score 1 for Midpoint Technologies Inc. and Score 1 for the Information Security community and society as a whole!