I was born in Regensburg Germany as the first son of a career Army man.  Having grown up in the United States and Europe as my family moved with the military, I never established roots any one place.  My high school years were spent at East Anchorage High School in Anchorage Alaska where I first developed a strong interest in computing.  I entered the University of Southern Mississippi after high school where I completed a BS degree in Computer Science and graduated as a distinguished military graduate in the ROTC program.  I was commissioned an officer in the Army where I spent the next 26 years serving in Alaska, Vietnam, Belgium, Washington DC, and a variety of other places.  The Army sent me to obtain a Masters and PhD degree in Computer Science at Kansas State University where I was introduced to and began a life long interest in computer security.  Following the award of the PhD from KSU - the Army allowed me to serve at the National Security Agency's National Computer Security Center, the US Naval Academy, the Pentagon, and gave me command of the Army's largest software development Center - the Information Systems Software Command at Fort Belvoir VA.  After retiring in 1995 at the grade of Colonel, I accepted a position with the world class computer services firm, EDS, as Vice President, DISA Integration Services where I as given responsibility for a number of government contracts and customer satisfaction with deliverables. 

In October 1997, I was offered a faculty position with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Mississippi State University where I currently serve as a Professor of Computer Science and I oversee the Computer Security Research Program.