Biography

Dr. John D. Johnson, Ph.D., CISSP, CRISC, SMIEEE

  • President/CISO and Founder of Aligned Security, a cybersecurity consulting firm providing vCISO and advisory services. Acting in executive advisory role for confidential clients across all industry sectors
  • Founder/President, Docent Institute, a 501(c)(3) Iowa educational institution which focuses on the intersection of society with cybersecurity and emerging technologies and cybersecurity outreach and education for K-12 and the community
  • Co-Founder and President, Quad Cities Cybersecurity Alliance
  • Editorial Board Member, SC Media Editorial Board
  • Founding Board Member, Security Advisor Alliance
  • Founding Board Member, Cyber Education Foundation
  • Founding Board Member, Cyber Mass Corp
  • Founding Board Member, Ohio Cyber Women
  • Advisory Board Member, Security Architecture Advisor, MedBlox
  • Advisory Board Member, vArmour
  • Advisory Board Member, Full Stack Academy
  • IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors (Sensors Council Rep), IEEE STC on Cybersecurity Chair, Computer Society Merwin Award Committee, IEEE Standards Association, IEEE Sensors Council, Region 4 SPC, Iowa-Illinois Section Webmaster, EKN Honor Society, IEEE Senior Member, IEEE  ieee.org
  • Board Member, ISSA Education Foundation
  • Co-Founder/Conference Chair CornCon/QC Cybersecurity Conference and Kids’ Hacker Camp/STEM Festival  www.corncon.net

Past roles include:

  • Cybersecurity Executive, Information Security, Campbell Soup Company,
    focused on IT and OT cybersecurity and risk management
  • Cyber Risk Advisory Senior Manger, Deloitte, focused on industrial cybersecurity and IoT
  • Professor of Cybersecurity, Excelsior College, St. Ambrose College and Eastern Iowa Community Colleges
  • CTO for Revolutionary Integration Group, an AI/IoT startup
  • Security Architect for John Deere for 18 years, where he managed security infrastructure and developed strategy and secure architecture solutions for protecting a global corporate network, endpoints, industrial systems and the supply chain
  • Network and Security Manager for the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Experimental nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, developing radiation systems for nuclear remediation and non-proliferation

John has developed and taught numerous graduate cybersecurity courses and helped develop the CISO executive certificate program with University of Chicago, Booth School of Management. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has served on program committees for RSA Conference, Black Hat and InfowarCon. John is co-founder and program chair for CornCon cybersecurity conference and The Children of The CornCon kids’ hacker camp and STEM festival, and an organizer of the annual R00tz kids’ hacker camp at DEFCON.

Over his career, John has served in numerous leadership roles in technical and professional societies, including IEEE, InfraGard and (ISC)2. John has maintained his CISSP and CRISC certifications and has received various awards in recognition of his contribution to the profession. He was runner up for 2014 Chicago CISO of the Year, he is also an IEEE Senior Member (SMIEEE), ISSA Senior Member, Charter Member of FAIR Institute and Distinguished Fellow of Ponemon Institute. John is a member of Sigma Xi and Eta Kappa Nu Honor Societies.

John’s research interests include: Cybersecurity, IoT, IIoT, Smart Cities, Connected Vehicles, Blockchain Applications, Machine Learning Applications, and solving difficult security problems in innovative and creative ways to align with business objectives and the future directions of emerging technologies.

John enjoys promoting STEAM and cybersecurity with kids and the public, blogging, podcasting, photography, travel, astronomy and spoiling his four beautiful grandchildren.

TESTIMONIALS

“I had the opportunity to work with John on a number of network security related projects. I was very impressed by his deep technical expertise and great project management skills. John played a key role in understanding the business requirements and helped develop the right security solutions. I highly recommend John for the any strategic IT security solution engagement.” – Tauseef Ahmed, Manager Product Data and Application, John Deere

“Dr. John Johnson is a terrific professional, an educator, and a tireless volunteer. I’ve known him for several years through the IEEE and I’ve been very impressed with his knowledge, his affability, and his acumen. I served on the Executive Board of the Iowa-Illinois IEEE section with John and he’s just a great guy to work with.” – John Dooley, William and Marilyn Ingersoll Professor of Computer Science at Knox College

“I had the pleasure of working with John at John Deere while I was at Foundstone. John is an extremely warm and friendly person with remarkable honesty, integrity and knowledge of security. It has been a pleasure to work with John in the past and I envy any role that works closely with John in the future.” – Stuart McClure, CEO/President and Founder, Cylance, Inc.

“John Johnson is a consummate professional and a highly respected and trusted information risk management colleague. John combines a deep strategic and architectural understanding of information security with the rare ability to educate, teach and communicate with people of every level in terms they can readily understand. John’s work ethic and willingness to give back to the information security community is commendable, and he has been and continues to be a recognized thought leader in the field. I have the utmost respect for John and personally value and appreciate all of his contributions.” – Dennis Devlin, CISO, BlueAlly

March 31st, 2017 by John