From Radio Shack to Network Security

I got my start on a Radio Shack computer in 1978 — walking there after school to teach myself programming on some of the first personal computers ever sold.

I have been hands-on with technology, and how to break and defend it, ever since. Before computers were my career, precision was my job: I spent eight years in the U.S. Air Force as an aircraft armament specialist on B-52 and B-1 bombers, work where there is no such thing as “close enough,” and where you learn to methodically find every point of failure before it finds you. That mindset carried directly into security work — the job is to find the gap before someone else does.

I founded RJ Robinson Consulting in 2001, focused on network security alongside website and web application development. That combination is deliberate. I write code in React, Laravel, PHP, JavaScript, C++, and HTML — which means when I assess a network or a web application, I am not just running a scanner and handing you a printout. I understand how the software was actually built, which is exactly where most real-world vulnerabilities hide.

Today that work centers on network security assessments — what’s often called penetration testing — for small businesses that need a real answer to “where are we exposed?” without an enterprise budget or an in-house security team.

Outside of work, I live in Loma Linda, CA with my wife — we have five kids and three grandchildren between us, which keeps life at least as interesting as any network diagram.

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