John C. A. 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.

Information Security Work John 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.