KrebsOnSecurity.com celebrates its 12th anniversary today! Maybe “celebrate” is too indelicate a word for a year wracked by the global pandemics of COVID-19 and ransomware. Especially since stories about both have helped to grow the audience here tremendously in 2021. But this site’s birthday also is a welcome opportunity to thank you all for your continued readership and support, which helps keep the content here free to everyone.
More than seven million unique visitors came to KrebsOnSecurity.com in 2021, generating some 12 million+ pageviews and leaving almost 8,000 comments. We also now have nearly 50,000 subscribers to our email newsletter, which is still just a text-based (non-HTML) email that goes out each time a new story is published here (~2-3 times a week).
Back when this site first began 12 years ago, I never imagined it would attract such a level of engagement. Before launching KrebsOnSecurity, I was a tech reporter for washingtonpost.com. For many years, The Post’s website was physically, financially and editorially separate from what the dot-com employees affectionately called “The Dead Tree Edition.” When the two newsrooms finally merged in 2009, my position was eliminated.
Happily, the blog I authored for four years at washingtonpost.com — Security Fix — had attracted a sizable readership, and it seemed clear that the worldwide appetite for in-depth news about computer security and cybercrime would become practically insatiable in the coming years.
Happier still, The Post offered a severance package equal to six months of my salary. Had they not thrown that lifeline, I doubt I’d have had the guts to go it alone. But at the time, my wife basically said I had six months to make this “blog thing” work, or else find a “real job.”
God bless her eternal patience with my adopted occupation, because KrebsOnSecurity has helped me avoid finding a real job for a dozen years now. And hopefully they let me keep doing this, because at this point I’m certainly unqualified to do much else.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to remind Dear Readers that advertisers do help keep the content free here to everyone. For security and privacy reasons, KrebsOnSecurity does not host any third-party content on this site — and this includes the ad creatives, which are simply images or GIFs vetted by Yours Truly and served directly from krebsonsecurity.com.
That’s a long-winded way of asking: If you regularly visit KrebsOnSecurity.com with an ad blocker, please consider adding an exception for this site.
Thanks again, Dear Readers. Please stay safe, healthy and alert in 2022. See you on the other side!
Ditto on all the kudos in other comments.
My first comment here. Thank you for all that you do for us in the tech community.
A great 12 years for you and your readers, congratulations, and thank you!
Does the WP realize what they are missing? That was a great move for you and us?
Congratulations, and looking forward to many more years (*sigh*, in a good kind of way). Pretty certain I started following back in the first year of publication, way before you became a target of ne’er-do-wellers.
“Happier still, The Post offered a severance package equal to six months of my salary.”
No mention here of the Post’s editors who were happy to see you gone. Or any later editors for that matter.
12th anniversary today! Maybe “celebrate” is too indelicate a word for a year wracked by the global pandemics of COVID-19 and ransomware. Especially since stories about both have helped to grow the audience here tremendously in 2021. But this site’s birthday also is a welcome opportunity to thank you all for your continued readership and support, which helps keep the content here free to everyone.
Awesome. Congrats, man. I’m following you since the unbelievable post about the Iranian nuclear palnt firmware invasion. That was a champion for me.
Keep up the awesome work.
Good work Krebs !
Keep trying to get the hackers. Sometimes it may look like a difficult task, sometimes it is just an impossible one.
Dude – You have a “real job” and you do it so well. Thanks!
A fantastic blog.
This is the only thing I read every day, save for the news.
While I am somewhat “computer savvy”, I often do not understand some of the comments. But the important thing: I am learning by reading the posts and the comments. Invaluable.
Happy 12th birthday!
I’ve been a fan for several years. Yours is one of the best blogs on the topic anywhere. And your site is one of very, very few, that I permit adverts to avoid may blocker.
You do great stuff, Brian. Please keep; it up and thanks to you spouse!
It was reading your column “then” WP..and still now KOS that I was able to learn about nefarious antics of hackers/stalkers. I wish KOS..much success and even more Prudent vigilance for the Computing Public..Thanks Krebs.
Love ya Brian. Been following you since the early days and love the niche you’ve created for yourself. “Krebsing” is now a verb. Congratulations my man.
This is a great blog. I have been reading it for a number of years. It is informative and well written.
Happy Birthday.
Good job.
I have learned a lot and used it.
That supermarket atm in Isla Mujeres is where I and friends used to get pesos on vacation.
Hey Brian, you are doing a great job at what you are doing in Infosec space. Your posts are being read by both sides of the Infosec (hackers and defenders) alike! Keep it up..take care and be safe!
So happy this “blog thing” worked out – congratulations on 12 years. Cheers to many more!
Good work Brian !
Keep up the wonderful blog you have here !
If it weren’t for your investigative articles over the years, I shutter to think about what the internet we take for granted on a daily basis would be today; ground to adapt I suspect. You epitomize the free “digital” press.
That’s ground to a halt. So much for auto complete! =)
Your website is a great resource. Don’t forget to mention that we can follow updates on Telegram as well. Not sure if it was you – but someone setup a Telegram feed.
Onward, to another 12 years !
Congratulations, and thanks.
Have been following the newsletter for years. High quality.
Allowed (trackers and) ads for this site (on Brave browser which is my default browser now – recommended for privacy and speed, built on Chromium).
Congratulations! Been a follower since wp days. Many more to you. But what I have been missing lately is anything about log4j exploit from your perspective.
Hi Brian: I’m on the e-mail list and I have been reading your blog for many years. I hope you continue to bring us this information for many more years.. elliot
Anyone interested in tech owes you a debt for your fantastic work, Brian. Thank you. Wishing you many more years of success.
Congratulations to you, Mr. Krebs.
Thank you for your wonderful and very informative blog.
Congrats!
“Behind Every Great Man There Is A Great Woman”
😉 Thank her along with a hug from us?
Keep on, keeping on …
Congratulations on your 12th year of providing us with a very helpful source of information on protecting our security.
I do wish you many more years of success so you do not have to go out and find a “real job”.
Dear Brian, congratulations and many thanks for your help over the past 12 years. I am one of your non-tech fans. I am grateful that you take the time to help us also. I have learned so much from you and continue to learn. Thank you for teaching me and keeping me security-conscious.
I just added your website as an exception to my Norton ad blocker-my only one.
Congratulations, Brian. I’m sure the interest in this topic and your articles in particular will continue to increase making the next 12 years even better.
Congrats Brian and many many thanks for the very helpful info you have posted over the years.