Our Contributors

Michael R. Stanfield

Chief Executive Officer – Intersections Inc.

Michael R. Stanfield co-founded CreditComm, the predecessor to Intersections, in May 1996 and has been Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a Director since that time.

Michael joined Loeb Partners Corporation in November 1993 and served as a Managing Director at the time of his resignation in August 1999.

Michael has been involved in management information services and direct marketing through investments and management since 1982, and has served as a director of CCC Information Services Inc. and BWIA West Indies Airways.

Prior to beginning his operational career, Michael was an investment banker with Loeb, Rhoades & Co. and Wertheim & Co.

Michael holds a B.B.A. in Business Administration from Emory University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Anne Wallace

President – Identity Theft Assistance Corporation

Anne Wallace is President of the Identity Theft Assistance Corporation , a nonprofit corporation that operates the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC). ITAC’s victim assistance services, which is provided free to customers of ITAC’s 38 member companies, have helped more than 52,000 consumers recover from identity theft. ITAC also provides identity management for consumers and breach response services for industry.

Anne is a nationally recognized expert on privacy and financial services law. She began her legal career with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board where she was Assistant Director of the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs and later served as general counsel of CoreStates Bank of Delaware, the credit card subsidiary of CoreStates Financial Corp. In the late-1990’s, Anne led the privacy consulting practice at KPMG Consulting. Anne is a graduate of Boston University Law School and Fordham University.

Anne has two daughters, Suzanne, a junior at the University of Wisconsin Madison and Claire, a University of Wisconsin graduate who works in Boston.

Anne and her husband, Donald H. Hooker, Jr., lives in Towson. Anne’s interests include the arts, especially opera, and rowing, golf and cooking. Other activities include the grants committee of Church of the Redeemer, the Women’s Giving Circle of Baltimore Community Foundation and formerly a trustee of the Baltimore Opera Company.

Neal O’Farrell

Expert on cybercrime and identity theft. Consultant for Intersections Inc. as Consumer Security Adviser.

Neal O’Farrell is a nationally recognized expert on cybercrime and identity theft. Once described as one of the world’s Top 20 security experts, Neal was the driving force behind a number of national security awareness initiatives, including Think Security First, a non-profit partnership between Chambers of Commerce and cities across the country to improve cyber security education at a community level.

Over his twenty-five-year security career Neal has worked as a security advisor to financial organizations, government, military, intelligence, and Fortune 500 firms around the world, and clients have included Toyota, ChevronTexaco, Merrill Lynch, bebe Stores, Cost Plus World Market, the Bank of Ireland and the Government of Bulgaria.

Neal is a board member of the Center for Information Security Awareness and recently created the first course and certificate program to be endorsed by FBI/InfraGard to provide free security awareness training to the nation’s 26 small business owners and their employees. He was also the first security expert to train an entire police department in identity theft awareness, and that program has since been used by more than 200 police departments and police academies, as well as the FBI, the DMV, and U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Neal has been developing security solutions since the early 1980s, and installed the first two-factor authentication system on Irish banking networks – a technology that is now in the forefront of the battle against identity theft and phishing. At the age of 25 he was selected to encrypt the entire joint Irish banks national ATM network, and later went on to develop the first biometrics-based access control system for Britain’s telephone banking service.

As an educator, in 1987 Neal hosted one of Europe’s first network security conferences, in partnership with IBM. He is a former contributor for SearchSecurity.com, a technical editor for the Elsevier “Hack Proofing” series of security guides, and Director of Education for Zone Labs where he was responsible for teaching security to more than 3 million computer users in 120 countries.

Anne Madrid

Inspector, Hayward Police Department

Anne Madrid, in 19 years with the Hayward Police Department, spent 7 years working patrol and 4 years with Narcotics before she was promoted to Inspector in 2001. Anne has spent the majority of the last 12 years working financial crimes, including seizing drug proceeds from narcotics traffickers, identity theft, fraud, forgery, and financial elder abuse. She spent 2 years with the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) Task Force, one of five California Federal Task Forces, which specialize in large scale Identity Theft and Hi-Tech Investigations.

Anne routinely gives presentations to Law Enforcement, and businesses and community groups regarding identity theft.

Anne possess’ a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and is a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Specialists, California Financial Crimes Investigators Association and the High Tech Crime Investigators Association.

Jerry Thompson

Co-founder, White Sky, Inc.

Before co-founding White Sky, Inc. Jerry served as President & CEO of the Vardi Group, a Worldwide Consumer Products company. During his three years with the Vardi Group, Jerry oversaw a complete restructuring of the company’s business, and brought the Vardi Group out of a loss and back into a profit margin. Previous to this experience, Jerry held the position of Vice President & General Manager of Systems Consumer Products Division, managing Sales, Marketing and e-Commerce. Under his supervision, sales grew by more than 300% in a 4 year period.

Jerry has also served as Executive Vice President in charge of World Wide Sales, Product Development, Marketing, and Channel Marketing and PR for Town & Country Corp., guiding an organization that spread from its Boston headquarters across the country and around the world to affiliate offices located in Bombay, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo, Germany and 6 satellite offices in the USA.

Mr. Thompson’s career started at Parker Brothers, where he rose to the position of Senior Vice President of Sales for this manufacturer and marketer of board games, children’s toys and video games. He holds a BS in Finance from the University of Texas.

Matt Hines

IT Journalist & Editor

Matt Hines has been covering the IT industry as a journalist, editor and blogger for a decade, and focused on matters of electronic security and privacy for much of that time. He blogs daily for eWeek.com Security Watch, and has written previously for a range of leading industry publications including InfoWorld, CNET News.com and Dow Jones & Co. Matt has committed years of coverage to the emergence and maturation of today’s thriving malware and cyber-crime economies, and the efforts of businesses, law enforcement officials, regulators and end users to respond to electronic attacks. He has also helped author Congressional testimony regarding issues of national cyber-security policy. Matt Hines is a paid contributor to IDGuardian.com.

Matt Sarrel

Executive Director, Sarrel Group

Matthew David Sarrel is currently Executive Director of Sarrel Group, an editorial services, product test lab, and information technology consulting company. He is a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine as well as Tech/Games Editor and Technical Director for YRB Magazine. Matt is also a technical writer and game/product reviewer.  Previously, Matt was a technical director for PC Magazine Labs, where he led all testing conducted by the Applications, Enterprise and Development Software, OS and Utilities, Network Infrastructure and Wireless LAN teams. Prior to joining PC Magazine, Matt served as Vice President of Engineering and IS Manager at two Internet startups. Prior to his experiences in the world of Internet startups, Matt spent almost 10 years providing IT solutions in medical research settings, beginning his career as a network administrator and ultimately serving as Director of IT for the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center and CIO for the HIV Educational Exchange for Healthcare Workers in Vietnam project. Matt has earned a BA (History) from Cornell University, an MPH (Epidemiology) from Columbia University, and is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Matt has written for and spoken to numerous international audiences about information technology and information security. He participated as an expert in two Federal Trade Commission workshops, one about spam in 2003 and one about spyware in 2004.

Matt has established himself as a small business technology expert and entrepreneur. He is also a network, information, and physical security expert. He is a passionate gamer and audiophile. He brings all of this together in his writings, lectures, and consultancy. Matt Sarrel is a paid contributor to IDGuardian.com.