Paul Cummings - U.S. Navy Veteran Turned Cybersecurity Warrior and Servant Leader; President and Founder of Whole Cyber Human Initiative

The CISO Diaries

About Paul Cummings:

Visionary Paul Cummings is a retired 20-year US Navy Information Systems Technology Chief, currently working as an Information Systems Security Engineer and Cyber Security Research Engineer for Stephenson Technologies Corporation. He brings a comprehensive background in executive-level planning, managing IT and Cyber Security teams, and program management derived from both global and domestic maritime operations.

Mr. Cummings has led 15 Navy War Fighting Ships and 176 Information Security Managers and Security Network Engineers to support over 7,000 enterprise users, enforced a 95% patch management and hardening efficiency for five consecutive years with less than 24 hours of critical service downtime. Built and Established a 38-person Cyber Protection Team and managed a $6M training budget that led the team to be fully qualified a year ahead of schedule and successfully led a large-scale incident response operation which was awarded the Department of the Navy IT Team Excellence Award for 2017. He has helped realign budget for personnel by forecasting Life Cycle Ends and computer system upgrades. Paul’s career is supported by CompTIA CASP, and he is the recipient of multiple awards for outstanding performance and professionalism.

His dedication to the success of others has led him to establish Veterans Breaking into IT/Cybersecurity Mentorship Campaign, an organization where he hosts monthly engagements with transitioning service members, veterans, military spouses, and aspiring civilian professionals found on YouTube under Paul Cummings Veterans Breaking into IT Cyber. He actively volunteers with Vets2Industry, Npower, Evolutionary Skills Development Network Discord, and Vicious Vineyards Discord.

Career is supported by CompTIA CASP and receipt of personal achievements awards: Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal (3 awards), Navy Achievement Medal (4 awards), and the Navy Good Conduct Medal (5 awards), Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and Department of the Navy IT Excellence Award 2017.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-cummings/

WCHI: https://www.wholecyberhumaninitiative.org/

Episode Highlights:

00:00 - Background and How Paul Got Into Cybersecurity

• Uncle was his recruiter
• Was bored of the 9 to 5 jobs
• Took ASVAB
• Started as a computer repairman, moved to help desk than ISSM
• Intro to cyber was in Iceland with an introduction to Red and Blue Teams

5:30 - Assignment in Iraq

16:00 - Complaints on Certifications

• Certifications and the demands around having them
• Difference between military and civilian requirements
• What happened to the CISSP?

25:00 - Importance of STEM

• Middle School and High School - Why not get a monitor, computer and raspberry Pi?
• Colleges - Very few doing it, but failing globally - Defining Cyber in IT
• College classes requiring classes that are not needed....follow the money

31:00 - The different options in Cybersecurity

• Do personality tests and Cybersecurity tests

37:00 - Transitioning and Recommendations

• Focus on skills that compliment where you know
• For those in transition, look at the the people in your industry

Final Thoughts

Teach your children Digital Citizenship EARLY!