Rick Howard
Want to Join?
Opinions expressed by ICN authors are their own.
As a 23-year military veteran, Rick Howard has a vast background in several different areas of InfoSec, ranging from experiences within both the public and private sectors. During his previous military career he learned the technical skill sets necessary to succeed in the IT/sec world and in his current role as the chief security officer (CSO) of Palo Alto Networks he continues to learn and contribute to the business aspects of this evolving industry.
Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Rick was the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for TASC and led the development of TASC’s strategic vision, security architecture and technical roadmaps for information security. As the GM of a commercial cybersecurity intelligence service at Verisign (iDefense), he led a multinational network of security experts who delivered cyber security intelligence products to Fortune 500 companies. He also led the intelligence-gathering activities at Counterpane Internet Security and ran Counterpane's global network of Security Operations Centers.
A veteran, Rick served in the US Army for 23 years in various command and staff positions involving information technology and computer security and spent the last two years of his career as the US Army's Computer Emergency Response Team Chief (ACERT). He coordinated network defense, network intelligence and network attack operations for the Army's global network and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2004.
Rick holds a Master of Computer Science degree from the Naval Postgraduate School and an engineering degree from the U.S. Military Academy. He also taught computer science at the Academy from 1990 to 1995.
He has published many academic papers on technology and security and has contributed as an executive editor to two books: “Cyber Fraud: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures” and “Cyber Security Essentials.” In the spring of 2013, Rick Howard spearheaded the creation of a "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" for cybersecurity books called The Cybersecurity Canon. The Cybersecurity Canon's goal is to identify a list of must-read books for all cybersecurity practitioners -- be they from industry, government or academia -- where the content is timeless, genuinely represents an aspect of the community that is true and precise, reflects the highest quality and, if not read, will leave a hole in the cybersecurity professional's education.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Rick Howard and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.
Having a boardroom conversation about cybersecurity and material risk
Those who embrace a material risk approach to addressing cyber threats will command the attention of senior leaders and steadily drive improvements into their organization’s security posture.
4 things CISOs should stress to the board of directors about cloud security
It's essential for CISOs to get involved in the cloud conversation, so that they can communicate to those at the highest level of the organization why security should not be an afterthought.
On cybersecurity and IT teams of the future, we'll all be SREs
Organizations that adopt the devsecops model will outperform their competitors that don’t.
The impact of DevOps on your bottom line
DevOps is the most important innovation to the IT sector since the invention of the personal computer. During Cybersecurity Awareness Month and beyond, DevOps is a philosophy to which security practitioners should pay attention.
Network defender innovation: time to throw out the old best practices
We have reached a tipping point, a point in our community’s evolution where the security vendor mambo is no longer sustainable.
Cybersecurity spend: ROI Is the wrong metric
Think about what your network defenders do throughout the day, every day, in the course of getting their jobs done. Can you describe it in one sentence? How would you characterize the thousands of tasks that the InfoSec team fields...