dugsong

While Black History Month honors those who've come before us, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some contemporary leaders in cybersecurity who are creating history today, and have personally inspired me. Here are some remarkable founders, hackers, academics, executives, and investors in security you should know: Window Snyder : Window's an old friend and older-school hacker (former VAX/VMS hacker who still owns dec.net :-) and now CISO at Fastly , the fast-growing CDN company. Her impact on our industry is hard to overestimate – with courage and uncompromising integrity, she's led Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft to address security & privacy strategically and architecturally, defending users as much against nation-state attorneys as nation-state attackers. Ejovi Nuwere : Ejovi was a fellow member of our w00w00 security crew who went on to have his autobiography Hacker Cracker published by Random House (ghostwritten by Ariel Sharon's biographer) when he was 21.

Most business books are one idea expressed in hundreds of pages, and boring as hell. When Inc. Magazine asked me for an inspiring book for entrepreneurs  (#23), I recommended the RZA's Wu-Tang Manual :  There are a number of core lessons I have pulled from this book over the years: First, follow your dreams - don't chase someone else's . Wu Tang could only have happened on Staten Island, just like Godzilla could only have appeared on a remote radioactive island in Japan, with room to stretch out and grow. No distractions, no envy. Be like ODB: There's no father to his style. Second, location matters . In an era when everyone uproots themselves to chase careers and dollars, the Wu represented Shaolin (Staten Island) with a pride of people and place, and a commitment to draw from and build on what's strategic around you. Third, build a platform of success for others as your legacy . There have always been great rap duos (EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim, Run-D.M.C., and more