Posted on

Farewell, CSO and IDG. Hello, Akamai!

Today is my last day as managing editor of CSO Magazine and CSOonline. Monday, my new job at Akamai begins. I’m excited about the new challenges that await me. But I’m going to miss the place where I spent the last five years of my professional life.

Mood music:

[spotify:track:1JFQyGHeNDAqUAubIAMiXI]

It’s been an excellent ride. I worked with some of the best talent and sweetest human beings on Earth. I got to burrow deeper into the information security community and made many new friends along the way. And I’m a better man for it.

Just a few of the folks I’ve loved working with:

Derek Slater: A gentle soul with a mighty laugh, Derek gave me a ton of creative freedom. My only regret about this relationship is that I never succeeded in getting him to drop some F-bombs. Trust me, I tried. The dirtiest thing this man will say in a moment of crisis is pickles. One night at a dinner we hosted for CSOs attending one of our events, he introduced himself this way: “Hi, I’m Derek. I ‘manage’ Bill Brenner.” The room erupted in laughter, and Andy Ellis — my new boss come Monday — raised his glass and congratulated Derek for managing a guy like me without losing his grip on sanity. I’d like to think Derek’s rational ways have rubbed off on me.

Joan Goodchild: Joan is a powerhouse whose videos, slideshows and articles have been key to CSOonline‘s rise  in monthly traffic. I worked with her at TechTarget and was thrilled when she joined CSO a few months after me. She’s been a good friend through some turbulent times, and I’m forever grateful for that.

John Gallant: John runs IDG Enterprise with good humor and grace, and he’s gone to the mat for CSO on countless occasions. We bonded over an interest in WWII history, our common geographical roots, cigars and movies. I’ll miss his always-entertaining editorial offsites.

Steve Traynor: Steverino designs all CSO‘s pages and helped us make CSOonline more visually compelling. He put up with a lot from me, and we had a ridiculous amount of fun concocting illustrations and layouts.

Bob Bragdon: Bob is CSO‘s publisher, a Marblehead Yankee and an all-around great guy. He took a lot of ribbing from me and gave it back in kind. One time, after I returned from a Washington, DC, trip that included a grilling from the Secret Service, I discovered that Bob had plastered my workspace with signs welcoming me to Gitmo. I got him back a million times over and had a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

Per Melker: CSO’s top sales guy for most of my time there, Per was my traveling partner in crime. He did the driving as we journeyed to Hoover Dam for a security tour and, more recently, a side trip to Amityville, NY, so I could take pictures of the famous house for a slideshow.

There are many more people who made my time at CSO richer, and I thank them all. CSO and its parent company, IDG, will always hold a special place in my heart.

Now it’s time to start a new adventure and kick some ass at Akamai.

CSO Cube

Posted on

Leaving CSO, Heading to Akamai

After five excellent years as senior editor and managing editor of CSOonline.com and CSO Magazine, I’m moving on. Starting June 3, I’ll be a senior program manager at Akamai Technologies in Cambridge, Mass. I’m stoked about this new challenge.

Mood music:

[spotify:track:4xaEeuXlXyc3lzYoLYEsAV]

I’m announcing my new adventure here because it’s the best way to reach the most people, since this blog is read by friends, family and many in the information security community.

Let’s address some questions:

Why leave?

The news will surprise some folks because I’ve always done this job with child-like glee. It’s been the best job I’ve had up to this point, and I didn’t start 2013 with plans to go anywhere. But along the way this and other opportunities arose, and the process of talking to people made me realize I needed to take the next step in my career. I’ve gotten too comfortable, which puts me at risk of becoming complacent. Complacency is never acceptable to me.

Will you still be in the security industry? Will you still be writing for a living?

Yes and yes. In fact, this change takes me deeper into the security community. That’s one of the things I wanted: to become less of a journalist and more of an advocate for this industry because I find the work done here so vital to the peace and prosperity of the world.

In the new job, I’ll be blogging, podcasting and creating in-depth reports and multimedia packages about the state of global security through the Akamai prism. It’s huge prism: At last check, the company was handling tens of billions of daily Web interactions for 90 of the top 100 online U.S. retailers, 29 of the top 30 global media and entertainment companies, nine of the top 10 world banks, and all branches of the U.S. military.

I’ll still write about what’s going on in the larger world of infosec (information security, for the uninitiated), and my job will involve a lot of community outreach. But now I’ll have Akamai’s data to compare with what other companies are seeing.

Above all, I’ll be telling the story of Akamai’s security program, which is powerful but not as universally understood as it could be.

When do you start?

I can’t wait to get started, but I will wait June 3. My remaining time at CSO will be for finishing up my current project load and ensuring that the group is in good shape when I leave. I owe them that and more. They’ve been truly fabulous to me, and I’ve made many friends for life. CSO and IDG will always hold a special place in my heart.

Will you still write THE OCD Diaries?

Absolutely. I wouldn’t have taken this or any other job if it required me to stop writing this blog. CSO and IDG supported my personal blogging from the beginning and in all of the discussions about different career opportunities these last few months, no one has asked me to kill this to join them. In fact, the support and enthusiasm have continued.

It goes to show how much progress the business world has made in recognizing and accepting those whose brains tick a little differently from the mainstream.

It makes me more optimistic than ever about the future.

Akamai