Dr Eric Cole Shaped How I Think About Security. Here Is What He Taught Me.
Dr Eric Cole Shaped How I Think About Security. Here Is What He Taught Me
The cybersecurity industry didn’t just lose a pioneer when Dr. Eric Cole passed away at 56. We lost the man who taught us that our job was never really about configuring firewalls, it was about enabling the business. His legacy isn’t in the code he wrote at the CIA. It’s in the generation of CISOs he trained to speak the language of the boardroom.
I don’t think a life like Eric’s can really be summed up in a paragraph. You measure it in how an entire industry thinks, operates, and leads today.
The Man Who Elevated the CISO
Looking back on my own path in this field, traveling across 50 countries, speaking to NATO, advising enterprises, I see Eric’s fingerprints everywhere. Long before “CISO” was a standard seat at the executive table, Dr. Cole was already arguing that security leaders needed to get out of the server room and into the boardroom.
He started as a professional hacker for the CIA. He could easily have stayed in the deep technical weeds, plenty of brilliant people do. Instead, he realized the biggest vulnerability in most organizations wasn’t a missing patch. It was the gap between the technical teams who understood the risk and the executives who controlled the budget.
Eric championed the idea that cybersecurity is, at its core, a business problem that requires risk management. When I write today about presenting metrics to the board, or translating cyber risk into financial exposure, I’m building on a foundation he poured years ago.
Three Lessons That Changed How I Lead
Eric wrote eight best-selling books, including Cyber Crisis, and advised presidents. But teaching was his real gift. Whether he was instructing at SANS, on his podcast, or consulting through Secure Anchor, he had a rare knack for making complex security ideas click. A few of his philosophies still shape how I lead.
1. Security is about enablement, not roadblocks.
For years, the security department was known as the “Department of No.” Eric fought that reputation hard. He taught that security exists to protect what lets the business succeed, if you’re just enforcing rules blindly, you’re failing the people you serve. You have to understand what the organization is trying to do and build something resilient enough to let it move fast, safely.
2. You can’t outsource accountability.
Eric was blunt about this: you can outsource monitoring, you can buy tools, but you can’t outsource judgment. As I’ve written before when weighing whether to build, buy, or outsource a SOC, the muscle can be borrowed, but the business-context calls during a real incident have to stay in-house. Eric believed leadership means owning the hard decisions yourself.
3. Education is the ultimate defense.
He believed this deeply, and he lived it, mentoring younger practitioners and giving away practical guidance instead of hoarding it. He saw the adversary scaling up and knew the only real answer was scaling our own collective knowledge.
Carrying the Torch Forward from Dr Cole
Fifty-six is too young to lose anyone, let alone a visionary. The tributes pouring in from around the world say a lot about how many people he touched. He used to talk about wanting to “end suffering in cyberspace.” That fight isn’t over, but the people carrying it forward are stronger because he trained them.
For those of us who’ve been doing this for close to two decades now, the responsibility shifts to us. The threats keep evolving — AI agents, supply chain attacks, identity-centric breaches, and the playbook has to keep up. But the principles Eric championed haven’t changed: bridge the gap between technical reality and business strategy, keep educating the next generation, and lead with stewardship rather than authority.
Rest in peace, Dr. Cole. Thank you for showing us what cybersecurity leadership was supposed to look like.
We have the watch from here.
Erdal
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