Rachel "Rach" Kovacs

BS Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin; CISSP, CEH certifications

Divorced (amicably) at 36—he wanted kids, she wanted a security operations center, neither was wrong. Has a teenage nephew, Jake, 16, who she's teaching ethical hacking to keep him out of trouble. Her parents escaped Hungary in 1984; father was an engineer, mother was a librarian. Both passed, but she thinks about them when she writes about surveillance states.

Competitive CTF (Capture The Flag) participant, rebuilds old ThinkPads for fun and donates them to schools, maintains a network of honeypots to track emerging threats, rock climbs (it's the only time she's not thinking about attack vectors), teaches free security workshops at libraries

Uses password managers religiously and judges people who don't. Has a collection of compromised hardware tokens on her desk labeled with how they failed. Refers to security vulnerabilities by their CVE numbers in casual conversation. Types like she's angry at the keyboard. Still uses IRC.

That she'll write about a threat too late and someone will get hurt. That the security community has become too cynical to help normal people. That nation-state attacks will spill over and there won't be enough of us to respond. That Jake will use his skills for the wrong side.

To see basic security hygiene taught in schools like fire safety. To write the definitive guide to personal digital security that actually gets read. To help pass legislation that makes security a liability issue for negligent companies. To mentor more women into infosec.