Linda Otto

Photo of Linda Otto
Professor, Cybersecurity
208.562.2519

Linda has spent the last 23 years as a faculty member, first at Boise State University in the Larry G. Selland College of Applied Technology, and moved to the College of Western Idaho when BSU started the program here. Initially Linda started teaching network administration, Microsoft Server, Linux and Cisco. She was fascinated by ethics and cybersecurity and has now become professor in the CSEC program here at CWI. 

Linda says that she has, “a true love for technology and I am always studying and looking at new technologies. As these technologies are implemented in industry I try to then implement them in my classes. I am also a firm believer that people who work in this field need a very strong grasp on ethics, not only in general, but have really thought about and established their own personal ethics.” This is something Linda strives for in order to help our students benefit organizations in Idaho, the US, and beyond. 

When not teaching, Linda is a big baseball, football and hockey fan. She also loves going to festivals and seeing new and creative art. In the summers, She spends a lot of time traveling with one stated goal to all 50 states. She has two to go!

Before teaching, Linda spent five years as an Army Military Police Officer. When she switched to IT she started as a Help Desk Specialist and worked her way up to Network Administrator. She eventually began teaching others to do what she was doing and found that she enjoyed it so much that she went into teaching full-time.