Brandon Colley, a 2007 WIU graduate and 2003 Macomb High alumnus, was recently recognized as a Microsoft 'MVP' (Most Valuable Professional) for his work as an identify security practitioner, researcher, author and speaker.
Colley, a senior security consultant for TrustedSec, has over 15 years of experience administering and securing Active Directory (AD) and Microsoft Cloud environments. He previously served as a systems administrator for multiple organizations before shifting career focus to information security. He has published multiple articles through Quest, Practical 365, Petri and other various platforms. Colley has has presented at several conferences including DEFCON, CypherCon, TEC, BsidesKC and Hackers Teaching Hackers.
'Growing up, I always knew I wanted to work with 'computers.' Starting with my keyboarding classes in high school, I remember trying to finish the exercises early so we could reboot the computers and play games. Coming out of high school, the only degree path most colleges offered was computer science and the job market was looking for data entry jobs, programmers and project managers,' Colley said. 'Today the field has exploded into tens or hundreds of career specialties and likely over a thousand different job opportunities. I went to WIU to be a programmer, but really gravitated toward more of the honors courses that offered a more unique curriculum. I also owe a lot of my career development to the job I held as a student at the WIU helpdesk. I learned just as much there as I did in class.'
The Microsoft MVP Program connects technical community leaders with Microsoft to promote engagement, advocacy and knowledge sharing on Microsoft Products & Services. The Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) program recognizes exceptional community leaders for their technical expertise, leadership, speaking experience, online influence and commitment to solving real world problems.
'Working several different IT related jobs eventually brought me into the information security world. Today, I'm a hacker, working not to break into anything, but instead with a goal of helping organizations better secure themselves from the virtual threats,' Colley added. 'My job is constantly changing with technology so it's important to stay up-to-date and even more important to share what I've learned with anyone who wants to listen.'
