A new voice in the cybersecurity conversation

Image manipulated. Original photograph by James Rhodes. Source: Flickr. Creative Commons

I’m excited to introduce README, a new cybersecurity publication that will feature provocative and practical viewpoints, exceptional tech journalism, hacker perspectives and commentary, technical analysis and research. Our goal is to create a platform for smart and technically accurate reporting and provide a forum for conversations about the important issues in the infosec community. We aren’t setting out to be the most prolific or exhaustive. We won’t cover everything. We’re more interested in innovations and ideas than every breach or ransomware takedown. README aims to go deeper, get to the root of the issues and help surface the breakthroughs, the sharpest thinking and novel approaches to cybersecurity.

I'll be leading a small group of editors and writers who will be regular contibutors to README. Together, we’ve covered cybersecurity and technology issues for outlets as varied as POLITICO, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, CyberScoop, CNET, The Guardian, PCMag, The Parallax and Tom’s Hardware. The founding group of writers include veteran cybersecurity journalists Shaun Waterman and Seth Rosenblatt, tech reporters Payal Dhar and Nathaniel Mott, cybersecurity policy expert Josephine Wolff and investigative journalist Joshua Eaton. We’re looking to add more voices as we grow and cultivate a diverse mix of contributors from many corners of the globe.

README is published by Synack, a crowdsourced security platform. We aren’t here to promote Synack products and services or push a business agenda. We will feature writers, researchers and executives from inside Synack when it’s appropriate and we’ll occasionally look to Synack’s community of ethical hackers (known as the Synack Red Team) to discuss research or for their expert take on critical vulnerabilities. Synack CEO Jay Kaplan will be a regular contributor. But we aren’t a company mouthpiece and we’ll approach all content with standard journalistic principles of fairness and accuracy.

Crowdsourcing is also part of the README DNA. Adhering to the standards of good and fair journalism doesn’t mean we plan to follow the standard media playbook. The launch of this publication and the success of other outlets such as Increment from Stripe, The Record from Recorded Future, Decipher from Duo Security and Real Life, which is funded by Snapchat, underscores the shifting power dynamics in media. Readers are willing to trust new sources of information when they’re credible, worthwhile and add something important to the conversation. We’d like to push it further. We want to give readers more of a voice on what we cover, where we focus our attention and even what angles we take. We’ll be looking to engage with you in new and creative ways as README grows.

For now, we’re publishing on Medium (generally weekly and more often during events such as DEF CON) and through our newsletter, Changelog. We’ll be organizing events and gatherings, too, hosting conversations on Clubhouse and Discord and elsewhere online. Follow us on Twitter for updates, news and analysis. If you have ideas for stories or if you’re interested in contributing, please get in touch! We want to hear from you and we want you to join the conversation.

Thanks for reading.