KrebsOnSecurity celebrates its 14th year of existence today! I promised myself this post wouldn’t devolve into yet another Cybersecurity Year in Review. Nor do I wish to hold forth about whatever cyber horrors may await us in 2024. But I do want to thank you all for your continued readership, encouragement and support, without which I could not do what I do.
As of this birthday, I’ve officially been an independent investigative journalist for longer than I was a reporter for The Washington Post (1995-2009). Of course, not if you count the many years I worked as a paperboy schlepping The Washington Post to dozens of homes in Springfield, Va. (as a young teen, I inherited a largish paper route handed down from my elder siblings).
True story: At the time I was hired as a lowly copy aide by The Washington Post, all new hires — everyone from the mailroom and janitors on up to the executives — were invited to a formal dinner in the Executive Suite with the publisher Don Graham. On the evening of my new hires dinner, I was feeling underdressed, undershowered and out of place. After wolfing down some food, I tried to slink away to the elevator with another copy aide, but was pulled aside by the guy who hired me. “Hey Brian, not so fast! Come over and meet Don!”
I was 23 years old, and I had no clue what to say except to tell him that paper route story, and that I’d already been working for him for half my life. Mr. Graham laughed and told me that was the best thing he’d heard all day. Which of course made my week, and made me feel more at ease among the suits.
I remain grateful to WaPo for instilling many skills, such as how to distill technobabble into plain English for a general audience. And how to make people the focus of highly technical stories. Because people — and their eternal struggles — are imminently relatable, regardless of whether one has a full grasp of the technical details.
Words fail me when trying to describe how grateful I am that this whole independent reporter thing still works, financially and otherwise. I mostly just keep my head down researching stuff and sharing what I find, and somehow loads of people keep coming back to the site. As I like to say, I hope they let me keep doing this, because I’m certainly unqualified to do much else!
Another milestone of sorts: We’ve now amassed more than 52,000 subscribers to our email newsletter, which is a fancy term for a plain text email that goes out immediately whenever a new story is published here. Subscribing is free, we never share anyone’s email address, and we don’t send emails other than new story notifications (2-3 per week).
A friendly reminder that while you may see ads (or spaces where ads otherwise would be) at the top of this website, all two-dozen or so ad creatives we run are vetted by me and served in-house. Nor does this website host any third-party content. If you regularly browse the web with an ad blocker turned on, please consider adding an exception for KrebsOnSecurity.com. Our advertising partners are how we keep the lights on over here.
And in case you missed any of them, here are some of the most-read stories published by KrebsOnSecurity in 2023. Happy 2024 everyone!
Ten Years Later, New Clues in the Target Breach
It’s Still Easy for Anyone to Become You at Experian
Experts Fear Crooks are Cracking Keys Stolen in LastPass Breach
Why is .US Being Used to Phish So Many of US?
Few Fortune 100 Firms List Security Pros in Their Executive Ranks
Who’s Behind the Domain Networks Snail Mail Scam?
Phishing Domains Tanked After Meta Sued Freenom
Many Public Salesforce Sites are Leaking Private Data
Hackers Claim They Breached T-Mobile More Than 100 Times in 2022
Identity Thieves Bypassed Experian Security to View Credit Reports
Big congrats!
Running a news organization is a tough job, so your ability to do it with profit for 14 years is outstanding.
Respect
Tomas
Always enjoy your articles and some of the best out there. Happy Birthday. Well done. James
Happy birthday. Krebs on Security is a bright spot in my Inbox. I marvel at how you are able to maneuver around on the dark web and come up with all the information and contacts you relate in your reporting. I’m sur my computer would explode if I ventured off into some of the places you visit.
Happy Birthday and New Years Brian. Thank you for all the hard work you do to bring us these articles.
Making the world safer and better for 14 years – thank you Brian!
Happy Birthday Brian. I have been following you for many years throughout my network and security career. I’ve learned alot from you and still continue to. Keep up the good fight brother. :^)
Congratulations Brian, thanks for all you do, few have the courage (and talent) to do what you do.
Met you back in 2010(?) in Portsmouth, NH. Followed you since. I appreciate your dedication. Your enthusiasm for cyber things is infectious. Keep up the good work! And, Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Brian – I appreciate your work!
Appreciate the unique and important work you do. May a new year bring more justice.
Congratulations Brian! I’m a (very) long-time reader from Australia. Long may you continue enlightening us about all things that (should) scare us on the Internet. Also, based on what you said in this post about ads being vetted by you and served in-house, I have turned off my ad blocker. May your coffers run over with the additional revenue 😉
Congratulations Brian! Keep up the great work!
Cliff
Happy Anniversary, Brian!! You are a real treasure for the online community. WaPo’s loss is our gain!
Best wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year 2024!!
Peter
Hey Brian,
I have the same comment as Paul B. Guy. Sorry I never even thought about it, but you are definitely with a few ad.
Thank For The Great Articles.
Mike Trahar
I just wanted to say Thankyou for all your efforts to keep everyone aware of the cyber security issues that are all to prevalent today. We’re all safer because of you!
Thank you for helping the world better understand the threats and mitigations. Best wishes on your birthday!
Grattis på födelsedagen!
Kudos…and please stay the course. You’re needed more now than ever.
Congrats, Brian! I wish there were more journalists like you. Unfortunately these days this is not the case. What seems to sell now is sensationalism, political warmongering and drama. Keep on going with what you are doing!
Brian, I miss the days when I could actually call you. Retired now, but still read your newsletters. Thank you for your dedicated service.
Thank you very much for what you do. Best wishes for you and yours in the coming year.
Happy birthday to both Brian and Krebs on Security!
I very much appreciate what you do.
Thanks for all your work and a truly useful website.
Cheers!
Congradulations to you. Thank you for the very informative articles over the years.
Investigator, educator, connect-the-dots master, and a damn patient and generous fellow.
14 years of a unique public service for which we all owe a debt. Salute. Run for President.
Congratulations on your first 14 years, and may you have many many more. Really appreciate (and am in awe of) all you do. btw, I’ve turned off my ad blocker for your site; thanks for mentioning it.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday! You provide important information from patch Tuesday to reports on new scams and many other items all written clearly and concisely with concern for your readers. May you carry on your great work for many more years to come!
Happy Anniversary!
I have kept my ad-blocker off for your site since I discovered it, because I want to continue reading your research into cyber security.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday! You provide very important information and news on subjects like Patch Tuesday, new scams and many other items. All written clearly and concisely with concern for your readers. May you keep up the good work for many years to come!
Happy birthday Brian -I still have your book that you signed for me in San Francisco a few years back.
Outstanding news Thank you