Happy 10th Birthday TaoSecurity Blog

Today, 8 January 2013, is the 10th birthday of TaoSecurity Blog!
I wrote my first post on 8 January 2003 while working as an incident response consultant for Foundstone working for Kevin Mandia. Today I am Chief Security Officer at Mandiant, back working for Kevin Mandia. (It's a small world.)
With 2905 posts published over these 10 years, I am still blogging -- but much less. Looking at all 10 years of blogging, I averaged 290 per year, but in the age of Twitter (2009-2012) I averaged only 144 blog posts per year. Last year I wrote 60 times.
Why the drop over the years? First, I "blame" my @taosecurity Twitter account. With over 15,000 followers, easy posting from mobile devices, and greater interactivity, Twitter is an addictive platform. However, I really enjoy Twitter and make the trade-off gladly. It would be nice to become a verified user though, with access to two-factor or two-step authentication.
Second, blogging used to be the primary way I could share my ideas with the community. These days, speaking and writing are a big part of my professional duties. For example, last year news outlets quoted me 55 times. Those citations represent hundreds of hours spent talking to the press, explaining how security works and how to improve our situation. I also wrote for the Mandiant Blog, and spoke or taught at 22 events. At the end of many days, I feel like I'm getting my message out without blogging.
Third, time is precious. I enjoy spending time with my family, or reading, or working out, or learning to play guitar when I'm not working for Mandiant.
However, I still plan to keep blogging in 2013. Twitter's only a 140 character platform, and some days I have the time and inclination to share a few thoughts beyond what I've said or written for work.
To celebrate the blog's 10th birthday, I will be announcing a book giveaway on my @taosecurity Twitter account either today or before the end of the week. Follow me on Twitter for details.
Before finishing I'd like to thank Blogger, now part of Google, for providing me this free platform for the past ten years. Way to go!
In my next post I will share word on an exciting new project. Stay tuned.









Comments

Chris Buechler said…
Congrats, Richard.
12:17 AM
RWeiss said…
Richard, thanks for all the great writing and thoughts! Good luck on all of those goals and I sure appreciate all that you have shared.
10:53 AM
Ben James S said…
Hey congrats on 11 years. Would love to have been in the game for that long myself, but I couldn't even get a decent internet connection back in 2003. And 300-500 posts a year is an insane effort; even at 18-60 posts, you are still posting more than many of the other blogs I follow. Cheers, mate
1:45 AM
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