A tribute to Harry Onderwater an early Dutch cyber investigator

Life is often to short to do whatever one wants to do.

Today I learned that once again I've put my priorities wrong and focused on my work in stead of contacting a friend who had serious health problems.  And now he's passed away.

Allow me to honnor in a short post Harry Onderwater with whom the early European cyber investigators of the European Interpol working party on information technology crime had the pleasure to work with in the nineties.  Harry was part of the Dutch delegation, together with Inge Theunissen and Louis Maatman.

Harry was the big man with the white beard, a selfmade geek that impressed me with his technical knowledge.  He was full with good ideas and helped to draw the road map to improve the computer forensic and investigative capabilities of police men in the European countries.

Harry was not a typical policeman.  He had already in those years contact with hackers and other computer geeks.  He showed me that out-of-the-box thinking and acting is better than what we used to do in those years.  Cyber security can only be the result of public-private cooperation in which we have to learn from each other.

Afterwards Harry left the policeforce to continue to improve cyber security as a private consultant.

Thanks, Harry, for your wisdom and energy and for the good cooperation we had. 

I'll continue to work for a more secure and safe cyberspace !

My sincere condolences go to his family and friends.

Bye and see you again.

Luc Beirens