Paul Kurtz's Blog Posts

Paul is a seasoned leader with extensive experience addressing some of the most pressing national security challenges, including counter-terrorism, non-proliferation of weapons, protection of critical infrastructure, and cybersecurity. His career spans government, non-profits, and the private sector, where he has held roles such as Special Assistant to the President on the National Security Council, managing partner for a consulting firm's overseas operations, and co-founder of a venture-funded cybersecurity company.

Career highlights include serving on the ground as a weapons inspector in Iraq and North Korea, acting as Political Advisor in Northern Iraq, coordinating the immediate response to the September 11 attacks, and planning a national cyber defense program. Paul also turned a groundbreaking idea to automate cyber intelligence management into a successful venture that Splunk ultimately acquired.

Currently, Paul serves as Chief Cybersecurity Advisor & Field CTO at Splunk, a Cisco company. In this role, he advises organizations on cybersecurity strategies and innovation, leveraging his vast experience in both leadership and technology.

Splunk Welcomes the Formation of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative
Industries
3 Minute Read

Splunk Welcomes the Formation of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative

Splunk welcomes the roll out of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) as a significant step forward in leveraging collaborative data and defense to battle cyber attacks from criminal organizations and nation states.
Presidential Executive Order: “Collect and Preserve” Incident Data. Is this the Catalyst for Cybersecurity’s Black Box?
Security
3 Minute Read

Presidential Executive Order: “Collect and Preserve” Incident Data. Is this the Catalyst for Cybersecurity’s Black Box?

President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity defines a solid path forward for the Federal government and its suppliers to address systemic problems in defending cyberspace.
Cybersecurity’s Moneyball Transformation
Security
3 Minute Read

Cybersecurity’s Moneyball Transformation

What do baseball and cybersecurity have in common? Nothing, at first glance. But, take a deeper look and you can see the glaring similarities. That's because cybersecurity is going through its Moneyball transformation right now. Read this blog post to learn more.
Only the Paranoid Survive, Recast for Cybersecurity
Security
4 Minute Read

Only the Paranoid Survive, Recast for Cybersecurity

At TruSTAR, we want to highlight stories of success in defending cyberspace that can propagate as best practices. Read more about human dependencies, technical challenges and defining data to be shared.
Stories of Cyber Defense Collaboration: Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG)
Security
4 Minute Read

Stories of Cyber Defense Collaboration: Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG)

Nicole Perloth’s new book, This is How They Tell Me the World Ends, details our past and troubling trajectory in cyberspace. It is a terrific and sobering read for both the initiated and uninitiated in information security. This doom and gloom title prompts the need for a blog series focusing on slivers of success in defending cyberspace that can propagate as best practices.
Cybersecurity Today: Alice in Wonderland Meets the Matrix & Total Recall
Security
3 Minute Read

Cybersecurity Today: Alice in Wonderland Meets the Matrix & Total Recall

The scale of cyber attacks and the complexity of networks exacerbate the situation. Operators face three significant challenges: an IT security ecosystem that is fragmented and in flux, users that are both human and machine, and multiple threats with varying levels of severity and sophistication.