About
Scott Jarkoff is the name I carry, whether by fate or happenstance. Since 1990, I have called central Japan home, drawn to the pulse of its culture, the weight of its history, and the quiet intensity of its daily life.
My surname, an artifact of migration and bureaucracy, traces its origins to the Russian "Zarkov." How it transformed into its present form remains a mystery, likely shaped by the hands of an overworked Ellis Island clerk struggling to transcribe the unfamiliar into the American lexicon. I was born in Los Angeles, California, in the shadow of Christmas, a time of endings and beginnings.
My initiation into the digital world began in junior high school when I first encountered a Radio Shack TRS-80. It was a revelation. The sheer potential within that machine set me on an irreversible path. That early fascination led me to a Commodore VIC-20, then a Commodore 64, a Timex Sinclair, and eventually an Amiga 500. A neighbor’s Apple II introduced me to a new realm of possibilities, compelling me to acquire an Apple IIe, a machine that would both captivate and challenge me.
During my time with the VIC-20, I would pore over magazines filled with BASIC programs, painstakingly transcribing every line of code by hand. Hours of effort yielded moments of triumph when the program finally ran, breathing life into the screen before me. I stored these creations on cassette tapes, a primitive form of permanence, allowing me to build upon what I had learned without erasing the past.
In 1990, I joined the United States Navy and found myself in Bahrain, where I first encountered my new home, the USS Blue Ridge. The ship’s home port was Yokosuka, Japan, anchoring me to this country in a way I could never have anticipated. For fifteen years, I lived there, immersed in a world constantly redefining itself. In 1999, I chose to separate from the Navy, unwilling to be bound to the whims of an institution dictating my every move. I sought a future of my own making, one where the unknown was not a constraint but an invitation.
Professional Information
I have spent my life in the pursuit of intelligence, cyber security, and the relentless hunt for adversaries who believe they can operate unseen. My work has never been about waiting for an attack. It has been about knowing the enemy before they strike, anticipating their next move, and ensuring they never gain the upper hand. I do not just follow threats. I chase them. I dismantle their operations. I turn intelligence into action before they ever realize they have been exposed.
I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Praeryx, a cyber threat intelligence company built on the belief that the advantage belongs to those who see first. Every decision, every capability we build, is driven by a singular truth. Knowledge is the most formidable weapon in cyber warfare. Security is not about defense alone. It is about foresight, precision, and striking before the adversary even knows they have been discovered.
Praeryx is not my first startup venture into building something from the ground up. I am also the Co-Founder of deviantART, the largest online art community the world has ever seen. I shaped the vision redefining how artists create, share, and collaborate in a digital world. This experience instilled in me an unshakable belief in the power of vision, execution, and relentless innovation. I know what it takes to build, scale, and disrupt an industry. I know true impact does not come from following the path already laid out. It comes from creating something entirely new. Just as deviantART changed the art world, Praeryx is built to utterly disrupt the cyber threat intelligence industry.
I spent over five years directing CrowdStrike’s threat intelligence business across Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ), as well as the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META). I worked with governments, enterprises, and security leaders to operationalize intelligence, transform raw data into actionable insight, and embed adversary tracking into every layer of security strategy. I briefed senior government leaders, Fortune 500 executives, military leaders, and audiences large and small. I dissected the tactics, techniques, and procedures of Nation State and eCrime adversaries. My mission was clear. Ensure those I worked with were never caught unaware. Make them hunters rather than prey.
Prior to my time at CrowdStrike, I served as a Senior Security Advisor at McAfee Japan, where I brought defense-grade cyber security solutions to government agencies and critical infrastructure operators. I spearheaded the introduction of McAfee’s threat intelligence services in Japan, proving intelligence is not just an enhancement to security. It is the foundation of survival. I worked closely with public sector leaders, demonstrating how intelligence-driven defense strategies could shift the balance of power against the most persistent threats.
Before stepping into the private sector, I spent nearly twenty-five years in government service, culminating in my role as Chief of Cyber Security for United States Forces Japan. I was responsible for securing critical military infrastructure, ensuring cyber operational readiness, and integrating intelligence to fortify U.S. assets in one of the most strategically volatile regions in the world. I commanded cyber security operations, led incident response teams, and worked alongside top intelligence agencies to track, intercept, and neutralize emerging threats. I built alliances between the U.S. and Japanese governments, strengthening collective cyber defense and forging new methods of intelligence collection and adversary disruption. The battlefield was invisible, but the consequences of failure were always real.
Tokyo is my base of operations, but my work has always been global. My mission remains unchanged. I do not just analyze threats. I hunt them. I do not just collect intelligence. I weaponize it. In this domain, hesitation is failure. There is only the pursuit.
deviantART
Back in the day, in the rare moments when I was not immersed in intelligence and cyber security, I created. I built. I shaped online communities taking on a life of their own. The internet has always been more than just a network of machines. It is a living, breathing ecosystem of human expression, collaboration, and innovation. Some projects fade unfortunately into obscurity whereas others become legends.
In the summer of 2000, a friend and I launched what we thought was a small, niche experiment: deviantART. It did not stay small for long. I was the sole developer in the beginning, writing the backend from scratch, stitching together an interface, and architecting a digital world where creativity could thrive. It was an era when tables dictated web design and CSS was an afterthought. The limitations did not matter. What mattered was the idea. A place where artists, designers, and visionaries could showcase their work, connect, and redefine online art culture.
By 2006, deviantART had become one of the 300 most visited websites on the internet, serving 20 million page views per day. It was no longer an experiment. It was a force of nature, reshaping the way artists shared their work, inspired each other, and built communities around their craft. Despite its scale, it was rarely acknowledged by the so-called Web 2.0 elite. Perhaps because it was not built for them. It was built for creators, misfits, and dreamers who saw the internet as more than a corporate playground. Though I no longer work on the site, its story is far from over. Some chapters are still being written. Others are locked away, waiting for the right time to be told.
My journey into web development began long before deviantART. Since 1994, I have experimented with digital platforms, launching websites often collapsing before they could fully take shape. The first success came with CyberTropix, an MP3 news site thriving in the chaotic early days of online music. From that moment forward, I was hooked. I have built, broken, and rebuilt countless projects over the years, each one a lesson in innovation, timing, and persistence. The internet is an ever-changing battlefield, where ideas rise and fall, where communities form and dissolve, where only the truly disruptive endure.