Thread by @maddiestone

Today is the day we've been waiting for! Follow this thread as I highlight @DondiWest as part of the #ShareTheMicInCyber campaign. I am proud to give this talented #cybersecurity practitioner the spotlight. #BlackNatSec #BlackTechTwitter

@DondiWest is a #Cybersecurity Attorney @Microsoft where he tracks global cybersecurity laws and regulations in order to identify and mitigate legal risk stemming from compliance obligations. #sharethemicincyber Connect with Dondi on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/dondi

Dondi is a proud #HBCU graduate & attended @aamuedu, earning a B.S. in Math w a focus in Applied Stats, & as an ugrad student, published research in regression analysis & number theory. As a student, Dondi went everywhere w his TI-82 graphing calculator, which he still has.

Interestingly, @DondiWest’s interest in computers and electronics started as a child, where he was known for taking apart and examining all the electronics around the house including telephones, radios and TVs.

During his freshman year in college, @DondiWest was recruited into the #Navy’s highly selective Baccalaureate Degree Completion Program where he served on active duty while completing his degree. After graduating he attended Officer Candidate School (OCS) & earned his commission.

Following OCS, @DondiWest was trained as a Navy Information Warfare Officer at Navy Technical Training Command, where he learned skills in Intelligence Analysis, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Cryptology and Information and Cyber Warfare.

Dondi’s first job in the Navy was on the staff of the Admiral charged with leading the Naval Security Group, where he focused on Network Warfare and Intelligence Analysis

As a Naval Officer, @DondiWest spent the majority of his time on active duty at the NSA, and if you ask him, one of his coolest jobs was working as the Global Targets Desk Officer in the National Security Operations Center (NSOC)...

...where he reported on geopolitical events and threat intelligence for 120 countries spanning Eastern Europe, Sub Saharan Africa, and Latin America. NSOC is famously known as the nerve center of the NSA.

While on active duty serving as an intelligence analyst supporting offensive cyber operations, @DondiWest realized that the law and cybersecurity would intersect, and decided to go to law school. In fact, Dondi’s law school admission essay was about cybersecurity law.

While attending @UMDLaw, @DondiWest served as an Associate Editor of the Maryland Law Review, and he published a paper on Cyber Warfare Law that was the basis for his 60 minute talk at DEFCON 18. DEFCON is the world’s largest hacker convention.

You can check out the video of Dondi's DEFCON18 talk here!

As an evening law student, @DondiWest’s day started at 5am on Ft Meade supporting cyber operations, then he would drive to law school & attend class from 6-9:30pm. He did this for 4 years. He still doesn’t know how he did that. He had to still support his family while in school.

After leaving the Navy, Dondi continued to work in the DoD and intelligence community as a contractor where he supported NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.

As a contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton, @DondiWest also worked during the early days of cyber warfare supporting the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare (JFCC-NW), which is the predecessor organization for U.S. Cyber Command.

While at JFCC-NW, @DondiWest mainly focused on providing intelligence support to U.S. Cyber Operations that countered the online content and virtual radicalization of cyber terrorists and Islamic extremist.

While at JFCC-NW and Cyber Command, Dondi developed a deep passion and understanding of the doctrine laws and policies related to Cyber Warfare, International Cyber Law, and the laws of armed conflict in cyberspace.

Dondi worked as a cyber staff officer for the ODNI’s National Intelligence Manager for Cyber, where he managed portfolios for the entire IC that focused on Supply Chain Risk Management, Cyber Deterrence and Govt-Private Partnership. In this capacity, he reported progress...

...in these areas to the Executive Office of the President, National Security Staff for Cyber.

As a Cybersecurity Attorney, Dondi believes that even private companies must now intimately understand the laws, doctrine & policies related to Information Warfare. He strongly believes that most large companies are or will become unwitting participants in Cyber Warfare campaigns

Dondi credits his Big Mama (grandmother) who raised him with shaping his career, as she was unknowingly the best “intel analyst” he ever knew. She taught him to read at 4 from a newspaper, they still read the paper together & she kept a radio scanner in her living room...

to listen to police communications so they would know everything happening in Selma.

.@dondiwest's grandparents are well known for helping to lead the historic Civil Rights movement in Selma, and even with 11 children, they allowed activists like Representative John Lewis, Stokely Carmichael, and MLK to live with them.

In fact, Jonathan Daniels, a white seminarian and activist was living with the West family at the time of his murder. Here is a pic of Dondi’s mom and uncle with Daniels. commondreams.org/further/2019/0…

Dondi would meet the late John Lewis on the Edmund Pettis Bridge as a result of representing @Microsoft at Lewis’ annual pilgrimage to Selma with @FaithandPolitic and when Dondi introduced himself, Lewis stated “She (Big Mama) took care of us. She took us in when no else would.”

A proud native of #Selma, Dondi wants the world to know that Selma, the birthplace of the civil rights movement, is in crisis. Selma is now ridden with crime, and Dondi loses at least one childhood friend every month to violence.

.@dondiwest wants to challenge all companies to look into how they can invest in the development of Selma, because a debt is owed to his great city. #ShareTheMicInCyber