Michael J Shannon began his IT career when he transitioned from recording studio engineer to network technician for a major telecommunications company in the early 1990’s. He soon began to focus on security and was one of the first 10 people to attain the HIPAA Certified Security Specialist. Throughout his 30 years in IT he has worked as an employee, contractor, and consultant for several companies including Platinum Technologies, Fujitsu, IBM, State Farm, MindSharp, Thomson, Pearson, and Skillsoft among others. Mr. Shannon has authored several books, training manuals, blog articles, and CBT modules over the years as well. He has attained the CISSP, CCSP, ITIL 4 Managing Professional, CCNP Security, GIAC GSEC, MCSE, Palo Alto PCNSE7 and OpenFAIR certifications, among other various cloud- based certifications. His hobbies are playing guitar, songwriting, and golf. He resides with his wife San Angelo Abilene Texas.
