John C. A. Bambenek
About John C. A. Bambenek
John Bambenek (born May 31, 1977) is an information security practitioner and opinions journalist from Champaign, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.A. in Theoretical Astrophysics (emphasis in extragalactic astrophysics) and a minor in Mathematics. He is currently studying for a Masters degree in Theology from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.
He currently resides in Champaign with his wife Rebekah and they are expecting their first child in December. Mr. Bambenek has been employed as a project manager at Cap Gemini Ernst and Young where he provided consulting services to numerous Fortune 500 firms. He continues to provide his expertise to the SANS Institute by authoring some of their published course materials and exams. Mr. Bambenek also operates the charitable Tumaini Foundation which provides funds and other needed items to Tanzanian schools for AIDS orphans.
Information Security Work
John C. A. Bambenek works as a research programmer for the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois . He is a nationally recognized expert in information security and has written and contributed to numerous books, courses, and other publications. He volunteers as an incident handler for the Internet Storm Center and his research has been cited in various media venues such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is currently most well-known for his work with spyware and botnets and the use of those technologies for identity theft.
Opinion Journalism Work
John Bambenek is currently self-syndicated columnist writing on politics, religion and current events for publications with a circulation of approximately 100,000 a day. He also writes for his own blog, Part-Time Pundit, as well as contributes to several popular blog sites such as Blogcritics, Men's News Daily, Illinois Review, Pro-Life Blogs, Stop the ACLU, and The Wide Awakes. He has been cited in the popular media and been interviewed on numerous radio shows. He currently also serves as the assistant politics editor for Blogcritics Magazine. He was formerly a regular columnist for the Daily Illini.
Philanthropy
John Bambenek is the executive director of the Tumaini Foundation which sends humanitarian and educational items to poor rural schools in Tanzania. The organization seeks to help children (mostly AIDS orphans) get a solid education so they can contribute to their societies and help develop Tanzania from within, instead of imposing "development" from the outside. He has also worked with numerous other charities, both domestic and international, to help those most in need.