Main Content Region

Montana Williams

Montana Williams

Lecturer

Contact

Lecturer
Information and Decision Sciences

Office Hours

Sunday:
Monday: 17:00-18:00
Tuesday:
Wednesday: 17:00-18:00
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:

Bio

R. “Montana” Williams is a Corporate Vice President, Technology Operational Risk Officer for Wells Fargo, N.A. He leads corporate independent risk management monitoring & oversight practices focused on incident management/response, crisis communications, & cyber resilience ensuring Wells Fargo is developing, maintaining, & enhance organizational response management & cybersecurity capabilities & resiliency to protect key business functions & ensure critical platforms & functions are performing in a safe, sound manner, & in compliance with regulatory requirements, industry guidelines, &best practices. He joined Wells Fargo in 2019, after spending four years as an independent consultant. He co-founded Titan Rain Cybersecurity (TRC), LLC, successful consulting firm that provides full-service virtual CISO (vCISO) support, IT/Cybersecurity risk, governance, workforce development, assessments, & policy development to various public & private sector entities. Recently, Mr. Williams served as the interim Chief Information Security Officer for Everi Holdings, the largest casino payments company in the world &was an independent CISO & Executive Cybersecurity Consultant for Protiviti, Inc., providing solutions to their global customer base. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors for the US Elections & Cyber Education/ Training Information Analysis & Sharing Organizations. Furthermore, he is an adjunct professor at California State University-San Bernardino teaching cyber risk management & cybersecurity. Before this role, he was the interim Chief Information Security Officer for Everi Holdings, the largest global casino payments company & independent CISO & Executive Cybersecurity Consultant for Protiviti, Inc., guiding global client facing cyber resiliency. Over the past 30 years, he has held numerous executive-level positions in the private, non-profit, government, & military sectors. Led operations, information security, risk management, training, workforce development, exercise planning, red team operations, & cybersecurity consulting efforts globally. While serving at the White House &Department of Homeland Security, he oversaw the evolution of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), architected the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, created the Federal Virtual Training Environment, built the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers & Studies Portal, oversaw the DHS/NSA Centers of Academic Excellence Program & directed execution of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. A retired career military officer with assignments in flying, intelligence, training, & cyberspace, including commanding the USAF Cyber Red Team & a Cyber Training & Exercise Integration unit. He is an Afghanistan & Iraq combat veteran.
 

CAREER:

  1. Feb 1990 – Jun 2002, Numerous B-52 flying, instructor & evaluator assignments, Various USAF locations globally
  2. Jul 2002 – Dec 2004, Commander Aggressor Ops/Assistant Ops Officer, 318th IOG, Lackland AFB, TX
  3. Jan 2005 – Jun 2010 – Director of Red Team Ops/Commander/Chief Space & Info Ops, 57 WG/98 RW, Nellis AFB, NV
  4. Jul 2010 – Sept 2011 – Senior Technical Program Manager, Cyber Counterintelligence Training & Threat Analysis, National Counterintelligence Executive, Office of Director National Intelligence, Washington, D.C.
  5. Sept 2011 – Mar 2015 – White House Senior Strategic Advisor, National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) & Chief, National Cybersecurity Education & Awareness Branch, prior Director, National Cybersecurity Education & Workforce Development Office, Department of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C.
  6. Mar 2015 – Present – Adjunct Professor, California State University-San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA
  7. Apr 2015 – Jul 2016 – Independent Cyber Practices & Business Dev Consultant, ISACA, Las Vegas, NV
  8. Apr 2015 – Present – Co-Founder/Managing Partner & Cyber Evangelist, Titan Rain Cybersecurity, LLC, Las Vegas, NV
  9. Mar 2018 – May 2019 – Interim Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)/Consultant, Everi Holdings Inc., Las Vegas, NV
  10. Jun 2019 – Present – Corporate Vice President-Technology Operational Risk Officer, Wells Fargo, Las Vegas, NV

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS:

Certified Workforce Development Professional (CWDP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), & Certified in Risk & Information Systems Control (CRISC)

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:

National Assn of Workforce Development Professionals—Life Member                Air Force Association—Life Member

Veterans of Foreign Wars—Life Member                                                                   American Psychological Association

Society for Industrial Organizational Psychologists                                                  Disabled American Veterans—Life Member

Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America—Life Member                                           Golden Key International Honour Society

Military Officers Association of America—Life Member                                           Association of Old Crows

Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association—Life Member            ISACA

Education

EDUCATION:

1989 Bachelor of Arts degree in history, Minnesota State University-Moorhead, MN

1998 Master of Arts degree in industrial/organizational psychology, Louisiana Tech University, LA

2006 Air War College, Maxwell AFB, AL

2018 PhD/ABD, industrial/organizational psychology, Northcentral University, AZ

Courses/Teaching

IST 2210 - Computer Networks and Security

IST 2610 - Cybersecurity

IST 4120 - Information Systems Planning and Policy (primary course taught)

IST 4620 - Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking

Specialization

Cybersecurity

Cyber Workforce Planning, Education, Training & Professional Developement

Cyber Resilience

Research and Teaching Interests

Cyber Resiliency/Business Resiliency

Cyber Risk Management

Chief Information Security Officer

IT Policy, Risk, & Controls

Cyber Intelligence and Threat Analysis

Incident Response

Incident Management

Crisis Communications