Features Chief Information Officer

As festivals go, this one won’t conjure up memories of Woodstock, Live Aid or Coachella. No one gets inundated by storms causing seas of mud, no rock stars take jets to play multiple venues in a day, and the setting is south central Virginia, not the California desert. But John Collins has very high hopes […]

One chilly morning in January 2020, Tony Neumann got the call every IT director dreads. Some strange splash screens—also known as boot or welcome screens—were popping up on devices given to employees of the City of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where Neumann has worked since 1999. Before long, staffers couldn’t use their devices. Neumann tried to remote […]

Having spent over a decade in cybersecurity, Nicholas Schopperth has pretty much seen it all. But when one hacker went after the direct deposit information of his colleague at Dayton Children’s Hospital, the mild-mannered Air Force veteran got mad. “I don’t like when people bully my people,” Schopperth says. “So, I called the bank, because […]

When the Jane Phillips Sorority Credit Union was founded in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1939, members could open savings accounts with a quarter and borrow up to $50 in an unsecured loan. Back then, Treasurer Mildred Hunt handled credit union business at her desk at Phillips Petroleum Co. at lunch or after hours, too. Times have […]

Ransomware attacks on hospitals can be devastating, and despite healthcare organizations’ escalating spending on security, cyberattacks targeting patients’ information are becoming more common. In fact, a recent study from the University of California, San Diego, concluded that healthcare cyberattacks should be treated as regional disasters. Because healthcare organizations are facing such rising security costs and […]

Not too many years ago, it might have sounded like hyperbole for Bo Wandschneider to call cybersecurity the fourth line of defense, along with air, land and sea. Now, the warning seems spot-on with organized crime and nation-states having intensified cyberattacks since remote and hybrid work became business as usual due to COVID-19’s onset over […]

Brett Thelen has seen the best and the worst that technology can do. He’s used his IT expertise behind the scenes to help public school officials secure their systems so educators can focus on teaching kids. He’s also helped lead an internal task force and a partnership with Michigan educational technology leaders to protect schools […]

People may say don’t fix what’s not broken, but that isn’t Sherry Lawdermilt’s motto. “Technology doesn’t always need to be solving a problem,” says the chief information officer at Bemidji State University. “It can also just make life easier or open up new avenues.” For instance, each semester, students at BSU, located in Minnesota, pay […]

Always better to listen than to talk. So emphasizes Bill Young as he oversees infotech with a staff of 33 at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas. How they had their ears to the ground three years ago as COVID-19 shook up campus life here as well as most everywhere. “For so many of […]

It’s a term the Grateful Dead used to explain their longevity: misfit power. C. Chris Meystrik nods approvingly when asked whether it’s in the secret sauce of his infotech division at Jewelry Television (JTV). “I like it,” he answers. “At another company, a manager might roll his eyes and say, ‘that guy’s really out there’ […]