The computer security industry is home to a multitude of diverse personalities and a opinions. One of the most unique and outspoken of these personalities is Christofer Hoff, or as many people know him, simply Hoff (or @Beaker on Twitter). I first met Hoff as part of my initial herding of the Security Twits, and in truth, I was initially pretty intimidated. But it was his no-bull approach to security and his communications in general that led me to determine him as one of the more fascinating people with whom I’ve interacted. He has more than 20 years in high-profile roles in network and information security architecture, engineering, operations and management. He’s an avid Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete, a devoted father and prolific blogger and speaker. His latest venture HacKid, raises awareness, excitement and understanding of technology, gaming, mathematics, safety, privacy and more for kids and their parents. In the latest installment of 100 Brains, Hoff speaks candidly about the role Twitter played in his latest career move, the harsh reality of security and safety online, and kids and social networks.
Q. Tell me about how you got started in social, from blogging to using Twitter and other social networks. What made you want to more broadly engage with the security community?
A. I started blogging when I was a CISO in 2003 in an attempt to try and share some of the innovative things my team and I were doing and solicit feedback from others who would otherwise I would not be able to reach. To be frank, a lot of the motivation came from a selfish need to quickly gather feedback on technology or approaches to things we were experimenting with. Much of my initial blogging was also an extension of older school forums and mailing lists that evolved into more community-focused efforts.
I have never been one to shy away from contention, provocative topics or back down (which is not the same thing as changing my mind!) because someone else blogs or tweets “louder.” Further, while others treat online personas as sacred cows, I’ll engage with anyone and I don’t say anything online I wouldn’t say to someone’s face. This, combined with a rather warped sense of humor, the ability to rhyme and the lucky timing of coming up at the same time as our industry’s biggest “rock stars,” thrust me into some interesting situations.
I was further inspired in terms of community outreach and expanding my use of social media by Alan Shimel. He urged me to step up my blogging as a way of inspiring discussion, debate and dialogue in the security community.
In terms of other social elements such as Twitter and Facebook, they are more like extensions of my personal self; I keep my blog more clinical and career-related whilst Twitter is a smorgasbord where anything goes. A big, non-stop, hysterical smorgasbord. Don’t tell anyone, but I actually maintain about 10 different twitter identities and about 5-6 blogs. Some of them are quite visible, others not.
