Who Influences You?

Rick Tracy
Rick Tracy
February 12, 2015 • 4 min read

Like it or not, we are all products of our environments and our life experiences.  The people we choose to surround ourselves with, personally and professionally, have a huge impact.  My career in cybersecurity is a testament to that fact, and I am thankful to have had many influential peers and mentors along the way.

My earliest cybersecurity influencer was Cliff Stoll, and his book The Cuckoo’s Egg from the early 1990s.  Shortly thereafter, Dan Farmer developed one of the first vulnerability scanners, called SATAN (Security Administrators Tool for Analyzing Networks), which got lots of press and encouraged people like me to start thinking about the security of networks.  William Cheswick and Steven Bellovin wrote a book in 1994 called Firewalls and Internet Security — Repelling the Wily Hacker.  This is where I learned about the Trusted Information Systems (TIS) Toolkit and the early firewall work of Marcus Ranum.

These books and thought leaders had a huge influence on me and my desire to pursue a career in cybersecurity more than 20 years ago.  Since then many noteworthy people in the field continue to inspire how I think about tackling security problems.  Here are a few more recent examples:

Diana Burley , Ph.D.  – Professor, George Washington University

Twitter: @DianaBurley

Dr. Burley is an authority on cybersecurity workforce development, and has helped me appreciate the importance of cybersecurity professionalization.  A trained workforce with diverse skill sets is needed to adequately address cybersecurity defense and response capabilities within most every organization.  To achieve this level of readiness, organizations must consciously develop their internal cybersecurity capabilities and continue to invest in training to ensure skills, qualifications, and capabilities keep pace with emerging threats.  Diana reminds us that security technologies alone are not adequate.  Professionalizing the cybersecurity workforce is essential.

Aaron HigbeeCo-Founder and CTO, PhishMe

Twitter: @higbee

Aaron used his creativity to develop solutions that combat challenging social engineering threats. In doing so he has helped transform employees from potential weaknesses to active security sensors who are able to identify and report potentially harmful phishing exploits. Influencing appropriate security behavior can greatly enhance the security posture of an organization.

Brian Krebs, Security News and Investigative reporter

Twitter: @briankrebs

Practically a household name, Brian is a trusted source for detailed cybersecurity news and information.  His investigative reporting techniques can even be applied to cybersecurity incident activities. It’s not good enough to simply know what happened – in order to affect an appropriate response to a detected incident you must also understand the who, why, and how.

Marcus Sachs, Vice President of National Security Policy, Verizon Communications

Twitter: @MarcusSachs

Marcus is a big thinker, and has highlighted the importance of having a broad understanding of the cybersecurity landscape.  From policy to packets, Marcus’ background and experience allow him to understand and discuss cybersecurity at all levels.  The ability to relate complex cybersecurity concepts and issues to business people as well as technologists is essential for any cybersecurity executive.

Adam Sedgewick, Sr. Information Technology Policy Advisor, NIST 

Adam’s work on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a case study in collaboration that is needed to establish effective security solutions that also make business sense. Using collaboration to drive consensus can make security solutions more acceptable to stakeholders, thus making the solutions more effective.

It is an extreme understatement to say that cybersecurity is a complex issue.  No one person has all of the answers.  For this reason it’s important for us to seek out and absorb the knowledge, perspectives, and experiences of the broader cybersecurity community to expand and strengthen our own individual capabilities.  Many thanks to those who have helped shape my thinking along the way.

But enough about me… who has influenced you?  Tell me on Twitter or leave me a note below.

Rick Tracy
Rick Tracy
Former Senior VP and Chief Security Officer
Rick Tracy is the former senior vice president and chief security officer at Telos Corporation.
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