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
Hello and Happy Birthday from downunder (and in advance Happy New Year ),
You’re one of the very few newsletters I always read and enjoy ! It never ceases to impress and amaze me, how your research is coming up with interesting and exciting stories. As someone who detests social media (I grew up with arpa and green screen terminals), you even manage to coax me into writing favourable replies .
Cheers, Rick
Congratulations. This is one of the best websites on Internet for the quality of content (on par with TechDirt).
Everything else is below in quality for me.
Keep the good work.
You’re doing a great job! Like many others, I count on you. Thank you! Many more years of success to you. JJA
Congrats on 14 years. I have appreciated your excellent reporting over the years and wish you many more successful years as an independent journalist. Well done!
Bravo. You are a valuable source of security info.
Thank you for all your work.
Keep having fun.
Congrats, Brian. Been following you since the WaPo days. Please keep up the great work.
Happy Birthday KoS!
One of the few sites where Ublock Origin is completely off.
Brian, congrats on yet another milestone. Your service to cyber and national security are unparalleled — and respected and appreciated by lots more than only your 52,000 subscribers. Here’s to many more productive, enlightening and fulfilling years!
(It sounds like your first publisher, Don Graham, was quite a guy. So is your current publisher. )
Just a quick thank you for all the great information you provide. I often feel obligated to pass your wisdom and information to just about everyone I meet, especially older folks, like myself, so they better understand what a vulnerable situation they can find themselves in if they are not careful and aware of what the bad folks are capable of doing to all of us. Thanks again.
Just a quick thank you for all the great information you provide. I often feel obligated to pass your wisdom and information to just about everyone I meet, especially older folks, like myself, so they better understand what a vulnerable situation they can find themselves in if they are not careful and aware of what the bad folks are capable of doing to all of us. Thanks again.
Congratulations on your first 14 years being independent and with this site. Good work. Long way from our GMU days. Very nice milestone, Brian. Keep pushing.
Brian- YOU RULE SIR! Thanks for ALL you do and here’s to AT LEAST another 14 years….PLEEEEEZE!!??
—MJ
thanks – you’re a trail-blazer, getting this sort of information into the light of day helps everyone impacted by it.
Dear Brian, you never fail to bring us interesting and relevant news, we might add under sometimes difficult personal and investigative challenging circumstances! You started when we had war dialling instead of OSINT latte drinking. Thanks a million and hoping we may enjoy your next 14!
Congrats!! I’ve been a subscriber from the start. Amazing work! I even bough your book… Thnks for all that you do to try and protect us.
Keep up the great work, Brian. Been reading your stuff since your WaPo days (sorry, I just now turned off my ad blocker for your site!)
Congratulations! I have been following you since you were a WaPo writer.
Sir, I join in the Happy Birthday greetings, well done. I stumbled on uTube videos about a group that finds and tries to close down Spam, fraud aimed at the elderly called “Spambaiters” . They are using the “MS says you’ve got a virus” scam to get control of others PCs. I watched as they filmed inside a fraud call center in India, after getting inside their cameras, reversed the “Take Over your PC Apps and tries to use the same techniques on them, and to expose them, even by their real names, etc. Do you think these are a good way to fight these fraudsters or just click bait for those who want to kick the fraudsters in their collective “butts”
Much deserved congratulations on your success, and many thanks for your dedication and insights!
You have been a “must read” for information security professionals, and it has been a pleasure following your content over the years.
Best in the business. Appreciate all of your content! Please write another book or twelve!
Congratulations, and all the best!
You have been and still are one of the best cybersecurity journalists on the planet, and you are the best public source of great information for the subjects that you cover. I look forward to each attacker you unmask. You were among the first to warn about the imperfections of SMS, MFA, and other technologies. You warned us that our financial information was not safe. No one covers the Russian cybercrime industry like you do. I’m still surprised Hollywood has not made a movie about you yet! Congratulations on the 14-year run! I’m sure you did not imagine this great, long, run after you left print media. Their loss. The idiots!! But thank goodness for us. I hope you run another 20-years or until you want to retire.
Happy Birthday KrebsOnSecurity, and Happy New Year to you Brian! Your work is very appreciated and thank you for all you do.
Brian –
You do a wonderful job! Thanks for all your hard work over the years. My first job was delivery newspapers for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Who knew that I eventually would go to work in the cybersecurity field. I too am an entrepreneur who is inspired by your story!
Hi Brian, I’m one of your non-IT readers. I have learned so much from you about online safety and continue to learn. Thank you! I also want to thank your readers for their comments.
Congrats on 14 years of KoS, Brian, and here’s to 14 more. Your stories are among my ½ dozen or so must-reads. Always a wonderful combination of technical depth and readability. Thank you so much, and keep up the great work. Mnohaya Lita!
Retina Group of Washington just had a big data breach maybe you could do a story on it? Just a suggestion thanks
Congrats on 14 years, Brian! I tune in every day to see if you’ve written anything new. I’d join the mailing list but I rarely check my email. I’ve always loved following your stories where you investigate and expose cyber criminals. You’re a talented guy and I appreciate your hard work and dedication to good journalism.
Have yourself a happy new year.
Thanks for all the information. I’ve learned a lot on how to secure my PII, etc. from fraud.
Also, thanks for your diligence in uncovering the bad guys. The feds should have you on retainer, if you’re not already.
Many thanks!
What’s sad to say is you are needed more than ever 🙁
However, knowing you are going to be doing the excellent job you are doing is some reason for hope 🙂