Five Questions with_ Dan Raywood
Dan Raywood is a cybersecurity industry veteran. He has over 15 years of writing about cybersecurity under his belt, with stints at some of the sector’s leading publications including Dark Reading and Infosecurity Magazine. In addition to his journalism experience, he spent time as an analyst in the Information Security Practice at 451 Research and as a Product Marketing Manager focusing on security research at exposure management vendor Tenable, affording him not only excellent insight into the cybersecurity landscape, but the whole gamut of cybersecurity communications.
In the latest in our ‘Five Questions With’ series, we spoke with Dan to find out more about his approach to journalism, sourcing news, and how you can best get his attention!
Hi Dan. Part of your time involves working as senior editor at SC Mag. Can you tell me about why you were attracted to the position?
Back at the end of 2023 I was looking to move on from the role I held at the time, and was offered a deal to do fixed weekly hours. and do daily content to get SC UK back on its feet. The work I do allows me to satisfy my interest in UK and European cyber, whilst giving me time to do work for other websites.
As a journalist with years of experience writing about technology, how are you seeing the latest advancements (particularly in Artificial Intelligence) affect your sector?
I've always felt it best to embrace new tech - I can remember when we got press releases posted to us, and we didn't have mobile phones! I couldn't live without 365 and Google Drive in my daily work. For tech like AI, I'm less of a user - I have done some playing with ChatGPT - in one instance I ran an interview transcript through it, and what I got back was like nothing I would write. For me, it is not something I use, but I see it being used by others.
Where do you get your news from? Which publications are you reading, and do you use other platforms (X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, for example) to find stories and experts?
I tend to rely on a combination of sources: social media for researchers and common trends, other news websites for what they are covering, regular communications with practitioners and PR folk, and straight forward talking to people. Where once upon a time we’d use RSS feeds to keep up with various sources and aggregate content, this slowly shifted to Twitter/X for news (and LinkedIn for people). This is now shifting again towards Bluesky following the widespread migration away from X. I think with Bluesky there is a real opportunity to build a feed where you get the best value.
You cover a lot of different strands of cybersecurity, but which emerging technology of today excites you (or scares you) the most, and why?
One of the first briefings I did in cyber covered spyware, and what was scary was how easy it is to get infected. That element still scares me, and there are credible threats that are easily deployed. What excites me is new ways of working, new methods of defence and detection, and better ways of doing a job, as well as genuinely groundbreaking technology.
And finally, how can our PR and Comms friends get in touch with you, and what will get them on your ‘always open’ list?
Naturally I have 2 email addresses - one for my freelance work, and one for my SC UK persona! Feel free to drop me an email and make sure your email stands out so it catches my eye.