RSA Conference has learned of the passing of Howard Schmidt. 

A longtime speaker at our events and a leading light in the cybersecurity industry, there are few words that could capture all of his accomplishments and what this loss will mean to us as a community. 

For more than two decades, Howard’s career was focused on cybersecurity in both the public and the private sectors. In the public sector he served as White House Cybersecurity Advisor to Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. In the private sector, Howard held the roles of Chief Security Officer at Microsoft, Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist at eBay, and co-founder and partner of Ridge-Schmidt Cyber. 

Just a few weeks ago at RSAC we were honored to name him the recipient of our 2017 Award for Excellence in the Field of Information Security. 

We as an industry are stronger because of Howard. We will miss him and send our deepest condolences to his family.