Cybersecurity Credentials Technology Innovation

Transforming the Information Security Paradigm

Randall Fort
Randall Fort
black and white photo of a stone fortress

Information security has remained relatively unchanged for the past thousand years. Science has improved on the techniques, but the underlying principles remain basically the same. The approach can be best described as a combination of the fortress and secrecy.

The thought is to build things stronger and keep any special knowledge from attackers.

This perspective has evolved into terms like trust, passwords, vaults, firewalls and perimeters. One thing all these concepts and practices have in common is that they are largely static.

The result is the development of "strong" walls and "complex" passwords. Only recently has the need for changing passwords – perhaps every 30 days – come into common practice. But this change is limited by the ability of human memory to manage passwords.

This entire paradigm has become more complicated (and hence more vulnerable) by the incorporation of anthropomorphic concepts in digital operations.

It’s time for a fundamental change that will remove all vestiges of anthropomorphic design and function from digital operations. This will result in cybersecurity operating not at the speed of human thought, but at digital clock speed, yielding significant transformations in security.

Vulnerabilities that plague systems today will become fossils of the past:

  • Lost and compromised passwords will be gone.
  • Stolen credentials that enable hacker to login to the target’s system will no longer exist.
  • Personal identifying information will no longer be used in digital operations.
  • Operational information in the SECDEVOPS environment will all be transitory, ephemeral and exist for only fractions of a second.

This is the QWERX vison of security – not in the future, but deliverable today.
Randall Fort

Randall Fort

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Randall Fort has extensive executive experience in both public and private-sector organizations. Prior to joining QWERX, Randy was at defense contractor Raytheon from 2009-2020, serving in senior executive positions, including Director of Programs Security and Director of Strategic Growth, Business Development & Strategy. From 2006-2009, Fort served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence & Research, managing the production of all-source intelligence analysis for the Secretary of State and other senior officials; he was also the Department’s first head of cyber policy, chairing the Cyber Policy Group, which he established. Before returning to government service, Fort served in senior positions at Goldman Sachs from 1996-2006, including as Chief of Staff to the firm’s president and chief operating officer, and as Director of Global Security. From 1993-1996 he was Director of Special Projects for TRW. Fort’s private sector experience was preceded by 11 years of additional government service, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Functional Analysis & Research from 1989-1993; Special Assistant to the Secretary for National Security, and Director of the Office of Intelligence Support at the Department of Treasury from 1987-1989; and Deputy Executive Director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House from 1982-1987. Fort holds a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University. He was also a Henry Luce Scholar from 1980-1981, serving as a research assistant to a member of the Japanese Diet (parliament).

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