Michael Farnum is an Advisory CISO and has been in the IT and Information Security fields since 1994. During this time, Michael has held numerous senior cybersecurity consulting, architecture, and leadership roles in various industries such as healthcare, staffing, and software development. Michael has spent the last several years working for cybersecurity solutions providers in the consulting, application security, and reseller spaces, where he has helped numerous organizations assess and build their security and compliance programs. ​
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In 2010, Michael founded HOU.SEC.CON, a non-profit cybersecurity conference in Houston, with over 1000 attendees annually. In addition to organizing a security conference, Michael often speaks at conferences such as RSA, Infosecurity Europe, and several BSides events, and he is also a prolific cybersecurity podcaster.​
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Prior to his career in IT and security, Michael served in the US Army and drove an M1A1 main battle tank in Desert Shield/Storm and spent 2+ years as a land surveyor.