Modern field guide to security and privacy

Passcode signs off

The Monitor’s cybersecurity and privacy project ends March 31.

|
Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor
The Passcode booth is setup in the Austin Convention Center at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive on March 12, 2016, in Austin, Texas.

Dear Passcode readers:

Two and a half years ago, The Christian Science Monitor launched Passcode to explore the biggest challenges of our Digital Age and surface the most innovative solutions to safeguard the internet – and everything connected to it. We set out to talk differently about cybersecurity and privacy, too, avoiding the tech jargon and fear driving most news about hackers and security.

Since our first articles and events in the fall of 2014, cybersecurity has emerged as one of the biggest global news stories. From the Sony Pictures attack to the Democratic National Committee breach, hackers have become major players in global power struggles and presidential politics. Our staff writers, correspondents, contributors, and columnists helped make sense of those complex developments and made an indelible mark on the international technology conversation. In just a short time, we became a must read for policymakers, executives, security researchers, and anyone else who cares about digital privacy and security issues.

But as the Monitor changes course to focus its attention on a new daily digital subscription product, Passcode is winding down.

In order to dedicate more resources to this new product, the Monitor will stop publishing articles and opinion under the Passcode banner on March 31. We’ll end our regular email newsletter then, too. This doesn’t mean the Monitor will step away from digital security and privacy coverage. The newsroom remains committed to following these issues.

Throughout this journey, we’ve worked with incredible people. The Passcode project wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of many dedicated reporters, columnists, and contributors – and the foundation of pioneering cybersecurity journalism laid by late Monitor reporter Mark Clayton. We’re so grateful to our sponsors and partners who supported our journalism, podcasts, polls, and helped our team stage more than 50 live events across the country, from interviewing senior officials to hosting capture-the-flag hacking tournaments.

It’s been an incredible adventure – and an exciting challenge to prove that great journalism on this vital topic can be financially sustainable.

Most of all, we’re thankful to you: readers who turned to Passcode to learn more about the connected world.

We are deeply appreciative of your thoughtful notes, insightful questions at our events, and constant willingness to push us to be better. And we are grateful to the information security community that supported us from the beginning.

We hope we’ve done our part to leave the web a little bit safer and smarter.

Please be in touch with any questions. We’ll use our newsletter to keep you updated.
Sincerely,

Mike Farrell, Passcode editor
Sara Sorcher, Passcode deputy editor
David Grant, director of content strategy, The Christian Science Monitor

Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor
Attendees listen to a 'Free the Internet Forum' at the Passcode booth on the trade show floor in the Austin Convention Center for South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive on March 14, 2016, in Austin, Texas.

Special thanks to...

Editorial staff past and present Jack Detsch, Joe Uchill, Malena Carollo, Jeff Stone

Publishing staff past and present Julie Cam, Matt Orlando, Sean Sposito, Ben Arnoldy, Ben Frederick, Nicole Scruggs

Correspondents Paul F. Roberts and Jaikumar Vijayan and regular writers Aliya Sternstein, Nathaniel Mott, Alexandra Samuel, Joshua Eaton, Grace Dobush, Rachel Stern, Seung Lee, Fruzsina Eördögh, Kim Zetter, Anita Elash

Columnists Jason Healey, Space Rogue, Sascha Meinrath, Melanie Teplinsky, Evan Selinger, Nicole Wong, Lysa Myers, Dan Geer, Bruce Schneier, Nadya Bliss, Lori Faith Cranor, Christopher Ahlberg, and dozens of other guest contributors

Photographers, illustrators, and videographers Ann Hermes, Erick Montes, Alicia Tatone, Michael Bonfigli, Rick Flowe, Paul Brigner

Podcast cohost New America’s Peter W. Singer and producers John Williams, Amanda Gaines, Simone McPhail, Fuzz Hogan (listen here)

Influencers More than 160 experts, politicians, policymakers, security researchers, academics, executives

Key sponsors Northrop Grumman, Dell, Tenable Network Security, Edison Electric Institute, Open-Xchange, Vectra Networks, NSS Labs, Invincea, and more

Key partners Atlantic Council, University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, The Hewlett Foundation,California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Center for Democracy and Technology, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and more

We couldn’t have done it without you.

Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor
Passcode team poses for a photo with volunteers at their booth at SXSW in Austin last year. The team is wearing their yellow "crypto party with us" t-shirts.
You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Passcode signs off
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2017/0322/Passcode-signs-off
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe