Michael Hacker (yes, that’s his real last name) is a cybersecurity analyst, technical writer, military veteran, intelligence collector/analyst, linguist, and polyglot. He holds a BS in Information Technology, an MA in English (Applied Linguistics), and GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) and ISO 27001 Auditor certifications.
In his precocious youth, Michael spent way too much time futzing with codes and ciphers, tinkering with electronic equipment (still plugged in, on occasion), learning to program computers, and picking up languages. (He may have created several ciphers so his friends and he could communicate without fear of people being able to read them. He may also have started, but not finished, creating his own actual human language. Fortunately, puberty set in and put the kibosh on that.)
In his life as a military intelligence collector/analyst, Michael worked for such famous TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms) as NSA (National Security Agency), DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) in roles ranging from interpreter/translator to interrogator to analyst/reporter. There are even rumors that he has a letter of commendation from then-CIA director John M. Deutch for things that he may (or may not) have done for CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). He has lots of cool stories, but he can’t tell you any of them. (Sorry about that.) Michael speaks English, Russian, Japanese, a little bit of French, a lot less Chinese, and way less German.
After leaving the military, Michael began working in technology, specializing in web development, networking, and just about everything else he could get his hands on, including building and fixing PCs.
Michael is also a veteran educator, having developed curricula and taught HTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP/MySQL, Flash/ActionScript (RIP), fundamental programming logic, and academic English/advanced teaching methodologies.
Finally, Michael is the author of The Language of Aikido: A Practitioner’s Guide to Japanese Characters and Terminology, an Amazon #1 best seller in the Japanese and Martial Arts categories. He is also an experienced technical writer with experience in writing, reviewing, and editing ISMS policies. (He’s also working on a screenplay or three on the side.)
Michael hates writing about himself in the third person.