I was 17. It was Saturday night. My cousin Danny invited me and a friend to a party at AEPi at Georgia Tech (interestingly, it was the same Jewish fraternity my dad belonged to when he was at GT, which was part of the reason they let me go I’m sure). So off we went, to hang out with my cousin and his friends, while my dad’s college photo glared at me from the Alumni Wall.
I don’t remember who flung insults first, but the exchange sparked what would become a 25-year (and counting) friendship. In the fraternity, Brian Kime was Danny’s big brother. He was funny, loud, sarcastic… this must sound familiar to those of you who know him. It’s no wonder we became fast friends, especially once I started college the following year at Georgia State, right across the street.
Cliff’s Notes version? Over the years, we’ve had a lot of fun times with a lot of great people — parties, mud runs, concerts, off-roading, rock-themed cruises — we’ve been around for a lot of bad dating stories (mostly mine) and have celebrated with the ones who kept us around. I caught the bouquet at his wedding; he signed the ketubah at mine.
In 2014, Brian changed the trajectory of my career by encouraging me to apply for a marketing position at Secureworks, the cyber security company where he worked. I knew nothing about cyber security, but he convinced me to go for it over lunch one afternoon.
I got the job and fell in love with cybersecurity. Everyone seemed not just passionate, but purpose-driven; each day, I learned something new; I got to know the community — they’re my people. Although I worked for one specific organization, the work never felt like us vs. the competition. It was the cybersecurity community vs. the adversaries. Some warn against working with friends. In fact, I often received that advice earlier in my career. Respectfully, I take the other position. If you have an opportunity to work with a friend, don’t be so quick to dismiss it. I’m grateful I have such a good friend that has also made such a positive impact on my career.
I’m excited to join ZeroFox as Director of Content Marketing, once again working with Brian and with impressive talent across the organization. Today, the world looks different than it did in 2014, and as our attack surfaces have grown, so has the need for effective threat intelligence, adversary disruption, and data breach prevention. We’ve got major challenges ahead of us, and there’s plenty of work to go around if we want to beat the bad guys. Let’s get to it.
