Only pager, no smartphone for this cybersecurity champion

Dan Geer is world-renowned cyber security researcher. He's Chief Information Security Officer at In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm. His company invests in technology to support the CIA. And he uses a pager instead of a smartphone.

A reporter met Geer after the keynote speech at last week's Black Hat security conference and asked him about his use of technology. And this is what he had to say: "I don't carry a cellphone. Honestly, it's a nuisance... But I testified actually twice - once at the FCC, once in a congressional committee - that if you required location tracking, I was going to give one up... I said I would give it up and went ahead and did it. So you say, 'Well, you're cutting off your nose to cut your face, you're just being stubborn.' But no, I meant it..."

Pagers certainly give less away than smartphones. But could you cope with the inconvenience? "I am getting older and it's easier to say 'why do I care?'... I've been carrying a pager but the companies are slowly going out of business because of this (points towards a cellphone). But it's important for some people to be able to reach me."