Threatc.at

Rick Valenzuela

I work in enterprise security and risk in Austria, focusing on operational technology, business continuity and quantifying which risks actually matter. Before pivoting to cybersecurity, I worked as a foreign correspondent and visual journalist across Southeast Asia, China, and West Africa. More recently, I audited graduate coursework at Harvard as a Nieman affiliate, focusing on cybersecurity, privacy and policy, intelligence, and crisis management.

I also volunteer with Operation Safe Escape and occasionally advise journalists on operational security and digital resilience, though bandwidth is low these days. Outside of work, I still push on a skateboard and have old nerd hobbies: Unix/pubnixes, rangefinders and off-camera flash photography, and good cheap pens, old watches and cabled headphones.

I keep a writing section here for public notes, drafts and occasional dispatches. Topics may wander from security, risk and journalism to '90s street skating, the music and culture that came from it, and snapshots of the Internet circa 2 BES (Before Eternal September). Maybe an odd recipe too.

If you want to compare notes or get in touch, you can find me on Mastodon, Bluesky, LinkedIn, or via email.

About my background photo: Two radomes of Teufelsberg, the Cold War-era NSA listening station on the outskirts of Berlin. Today it's a managed graffiti haven and art space. I shot this around 2013 on my first trip to Berlin, and I had just missed seeing Daniel Ellsberg being interviewed there for a documentary. Shot with a Nikon D200, my work camera at the time.

Profile pic: Oil on canvas by Damian E. Smith (2021), from a reference photo by Marianne Hruby.