Here is my goodbye letter to all of the amazing people I worked with over the last decade:

It was December 2001 when I came back to Microsoft. I joined the team chartered to build security technologies into Windows; I could think of nowhere else I wanted to be. After all, what other technology company in the world had the opportunity to positively impact the security of so many?

In my time here I have had the honor of working with some of the best and brightest our industry has to offer, working on some of the largest and most ambitious software engineering challenges in the world.

I have had the opportunity to work on platforms for cryptography, public key infrastructure, smart cards, biometrics, network authentication and policy, network isolation, cloud authentication, document signing, code signing, secure boot, volume encryption, enthusiast user experience, helped secure the advertising platform and so much more.

All the while I had the honor (and responsibility) of representing Microsoft in standards forums, working closely with industry partners and leaders to deliver the technology that has laid the groundwork for the consumerization of IT we are experiencing today.

My time here has taught me more than I ever thought it would; as much as the experiences themselves made me better, my greatest lessons came from you. Sometimes these lessons were a result of the folks I worked with respectfully helping me grow, but in many cases they came from simply watching how easy you all make the stuff we do look.

For these lessons I want to thank you.

Ten years later, a new set of challenges are emerging; Certificate Authorities are being forced to re-evaluate how they do business as a result of Advanced Persistent Threats and emerging technologies changing the way trust is communicated on the Internet. These challenges, of course, also represent an opportunity.

As such, I have accepted a position with GlobalSign as their Chief Technology Officer, where I have an opportunity to re-think what it means to be a trusted third-party. My last day will be January 20th.

Please keep up the good work and don’t be a stranger,

– Ryan Hurst
rmh (at) unmitigatedrisk.com
http://unmitigatedrisk.com/
@rmhrisk on Twitter