| Journalist | Outlet | Beat | Honest note | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kim Zetter | Zero Day | Investigations | The standard for technical investigative rigor; wrote the book on Stuxnet, literally | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Brian Krebs | KrebsOnSecurity | Cybercrime | Breaks breaches before the victims announce them; an institution of one | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Andy Greenberg | WIRED | Nation-state, hacker culture | Long-form narrative master; Sandworm and Tracers in the Dark defined the genre | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Zack Whittaker | TechCrunch | Breaches, startups | Runs the sharpest security desk in tech media; his weekly newsletter is required reading | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai | TechCrunch | Cybercrime, spyware | Relentless on the spyware industry when almost nobody else was | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Sam Sabin | Axios | Policy + business | The fastest clean read on the business of security, week after week | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Sean Lyngaas | CNN | Nation-state, government | Brings cyber to the biggest general audience without dumbing it down | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Dustin Volz | WSJ | National security, policy | The record of how Washington actually thinks about cyber | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Robert McMillan | WSJ | Enterprise, breaches | The reporter CISOs fear and respect in equal measure | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Catalin Cimpanu | Risky Business News | Industry brief | The industry's morning intelligence service, single-handedly | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Sergiu Gatlan | BleepingComputer | Breaches, vulnerabilities | Fast and accurate at a volume that shouldn't be possible | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Kevin Collier | NBC News | Cybercrime, elections | Network-news reach with real technical chops | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Kylie Robison | Core Memory | AI, frontier tech | Ex-WIRED senior correspondent now at the indie outlet of record for the AI era; where the AI-security story gets told first | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Dina Temple-Raston | Recorded Future News | Investigations, audio | Radio-grade storytelling; nobody humanizes the beat better | ○ pending |
| Joseph Menn | Washington Post | Investigations | Decades of breaking the stories the industry discusses for years | ○ pending |
| Raphael Satter | Reuters | Hacking, disinformation | Wire-service speed with investigative depth | ○ pending |
| Matt Burgess | WIRED | Security, privacy | Consistently early on the threats that go mainstream six months later | ○ pending |
17 of a planned 25. Rows marked ✓ were re-verified against public sources this month; ○ rows publish only after human verification.
| Outlet | Tier | What they cover best | Best path in | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TechCrunch Security | S | Startups, breaches, funding | Exclusive data or genuine news, via the desk | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| WIRED Security | S | Nation-state, features | Long-lead features, expert sourcing | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| WSJ Pro Cybersecurity | S | Enterprise, policy | Data plus executive access | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Axios (Codebook) | S | Business + policy brief | One sharp stat with a chart beats a press release | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Fortune (Cyber 60) | S | Business of security | Exclusives on funding and the AI-security intersection | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| KrebsOnSecurity | A | Cybercrime investigations | You don't pitch Krebs; you have something real or you don't | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| The Record | A | Threat intel, policy | Researcher access and original data | ○ pending |
| BleepingComputer | A | Breaking technical news | Original technical findings, fast | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Dark Reading | A | Practitioner depth | Contributed commentary with real substance | ○ pending |
| VentureBeat Security | A | Enterprise AI security | The AI-security angle, analysis-friendly | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Risky Business News | A | Daily industry brief | Be newsworthy; they find you | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| SecurityWeek / CyberScoop / Cybersecurity Dive | B+ | Trade coverage | Commentary, data, and speed win here | ○ pending |
| Newsletter | Author | Focus | Honest note | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risky Business News | Catalin Cimpanu | Daily brief | If you read one thing daily, it's this | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Axios Codebook | Sam Sabin | Policy + business | The business-side brief executives actually read | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| tl;dr sec | Clint Gibler | Practitioner tools + research | The engineer's filter on everything published that week | ○ pending |
| SANS NewsBites | SANS editors | Curated news + commentary | Veteran annotations on the week's stories; institutional trust | ○ pending |
| Return on Security | Mike Privette | Funding + market analysis | The money lens: who raised, who bought, what it means | ○ pending |
| Venture in Security | Ross Haleliuk | Industry strategy | The deepest thinking on how the security industry actually works | ○ pending |
| Unsupervised Learning | Daniel Miessler | Security + AI synthesis | Early and opinionated on the AI-security collision | ○ pending |
| Podcast | Host | Format | Honest note | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darknet Diaries | Jack Rhysider | True-story narrative | The best storytelling in security, full stop; the show that brings outsiders in | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Risky Business | Patrick Gray | Weekly analysis | Required weekly listening since 2007; editorial independence the industry trusts | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| CyberWire Daily | CyberWire team | Daily news | The wire service of security audio, every weekday since 2015 | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Security Now | Steve Gibson, Leo Laporte | Deep technical | Two decades of going deeper than anyone on how things actually work | ✓ Jun 2026 |
| Click Here | Dina Temple-Raston | Narrative journalism | Public-radio craft applied to cyber stories | ○ pending |
Quick answers
Who are the top cybersecurity journalists to follow in 2026?
Start with Kim Zetter (Zero Day), Brian Krebs (KrebsOnSecurity), Andy Greenberg (WIRED), Zack Whittaker (TechCrunch), and Sam Sabin (Axios). The full verified index above covers 17 reporters with beats and honest notes.
What are the best cybersecurity news sites?
Tier-S for business impact: TechCrunch Security, WIRED Security, WSJ Pro Cybersecurity, Axios Codebook, and Fortune. Tier-A for practitioner depth: KrebsOnSecurity, The Record, BleepingComputer, Dark Reading, and Risky Business News.
What are the best cybersecurity newsletters and podcasts?
Newsletters: Risky Business News, tl;dr sec, SANS NewsBites, and Return on Security. Podcasts: Darknet Diaries, Risky Business, CyberWire Daily, and Security Now. All verified in the index above.
How this index stays trustworthy
Verification, monthly. Every row carries its status. ✓ means a human confirmed the person, outlet, and beat against public sources this month. ○ means the row is drafted and publishes only after verification. Nothing ships on autopilot.
Corrections, within 24 hours. If we have someone's beat or outlet wrong, we fix it within a day of being told and log it in the public changelog. The audience for this page is professionally trained to notice errors; accuracy is the product.
No contact information, ever. This is recognition of public work, not a pitch database. We link to bodies of work only. If you're listed and want a change, one email does it.