CompTIA CEO Outlines a Framework for the Future

Efforts Will Center on Raising Knowledge and Comfort Levels with New Technologies

With innovation occurring at a head-spinning pace the president and CEO of CompTIA, the leading trade association for the technology industry, said here Tuesday the organization is developing new, free educational resources aimed at empowering people with knowledge about new technologies.

In keynote remarks delivered at ChannelCon 2019, Todd Thibodeaux outlined a “framework for the future.”

“Our  industry is all about empowering people and business to do great things,” Thibodeaux told the ChannelCon audience. “We’re committed to eliminating fears about worker replacements and job-killing technologies with a message of hope and empowerment.”

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Thibodeaux said the unease about innovation is understandable, but education can ease the concerns.

“It’s been decades since we’ve had this many paradigm changing technologies hitting the market at the same time,” he said, listing artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, big data analytics, robotics, bionics, and digital health as examples.

“We want to normalize these technologies for people,” Thibodeaux said.

CompTIA is developing a free educational platform that will be available to anyone interested in learning more about the technologies that are taking hold in our lives.

“You’ll be able to find a full perspective on these different areas of technology,” he explained. “Anyone who uses this resource will leave with a good conversational knowledge and understanding about these technologies.

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“This initiative underpins everything we do as an association, from advocacy and public policy, to education and workforce development, to certification and training, to industry promotion and member engagement,” Thibodeaux added.

ChannelCon attendees were also entertained and educated Tuesday by Eric O’Neill, a former FBI agent who helped capture Robert Hansen, the most notorious spy in U.S. history. Many of the lessons learned by law enforcement in that case are still highly relevant today, according to O’Neill.

“There are no hackers; there are only spies,” he said. “Hacking is nothing more than the necessary evolution of espionage.”

From poor passwords to unsafe email practices to bad web browsing habits, “we’re making it super easy” for spies.

“Spies are clever,” he said. “Spies understand how to exploit weaknesses in humans.”

O’Neill’s advice is to take the offensive against the threats.

“That means we have to search out events before they hit us; hunt the threats before they hit us,” he concluded.

ChannelCon 2019 continues Wednesday with a conversation with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Educational programming on the final day of the conference will include sessions on the managed services market; the state of cybersecurity; the space internet; blockchain; and the Internet of Things.

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