The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) will honorBrian Krebs, journalist behind KrebsOnSercurity, for hisachievements in investigative reporting.

Mr. Krebs will receive ACFE's Guardian Award at the26^th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, held this yearin Baltimore, Maryland, where Krebs will also deliver the keynoteaddress. The award annually honors the journalist “whosededication, perseverance, and commitment to the truth hascontributed significantly to the fight against fraud.”

As a reporter for The Washington Post from 1995 to2009, Mr. Krebs has previously authored hundreds of articles forthe paper, as well as posts for the Security Fix blog. He achievednotoriety investigating cybercriminals' illicit activities, havinguncovered massive data breaches and theft of consumers' personaland financial information.

Mr. Krebs first discovered and reported on data breaches atcredit card processors in Heartland (the largest single data breachto date), Global Payments and FIS for his website, KrebsOnSecurity.He was also the first reporter to break high profile breaches forretailers including Target, Neiman Marcus, Michaels, Kmart, HomeDepot, and the restaurant chain, Jimmy Johns. Krebs was also thefirst journalist to report on the malware that would later becomeknown as Stuxnet.

As his website states, Mr. Krebs was not trained in computersecurity and first stumbled upon the field by accident. After hefell victim to Chinese hackers taking over his home network in2001, Krebs states that he found his calling. “It's an obsessionthat hasn't let up,” he wrote.

Kreb's investigative reporting throughout his career has helpedexpose dangerous cybercriminals and those who would aid theirefforts. “Through Brian Krebs' hard work and perseverance, numerousfraudsters have been brought to justice and their businessoperations taken permanently offline,” said ACFE president and CEOJames D. Ratley.

“His insightful articles and blog posts have also raised publicawareness and helped to expose serious threats including themalware known as Stuxnet, massive credit card breaches involvingmillions of accounts, and global internet providers and hostingservices that catered to cybercriminals.”

Recently, Mr. Krebs has been working on a book about hisexperiences, entitled Spam Nation: The Inside Story ofOrganized Cybercrime, which will be released later this month.Sony Pictures is also reportedly planning a motion picture based onKrebs' story, after picking up the rights to his New YorkTimes article, “Reporting from the Web's Underbelly,” whichfocuses on his exploits.

The Guardian Award was first presented in 2012 to New YorkTimes writer and bestselling author, Diana Henriques, whopenned the financial thriller, The Wizard of Lies,documenting the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Other winners includeAllan Dodds Frank and Susan Schmidt.

For more information visit FraudConference.com.