Remembering Pavel Vachek

Pavel Vachek left us forever on February 3, 2025.

His name brings to mind words such as modesty, humility, diligence, willingness, reliability, generosity. And such First Republic gentlemanliness. And a great outlook. He could talk to anyone, not only about work, but also about literature, politics, family, faith - in short, about life. But underneath the kind, unassuming veneer, there was also an expert with immense knowledge, which he was happy to impart.

Andrea Kropáčová: Pavel was one of my first teachers after joining CESNET. In his gentle and non-violent way, he translated my theoretical knowledge from college into a practical grasp of the field and helped me on my way to understanding all the contexts of how the Internet, networks, computers and computer security work.

Over the years, he has managed to educate three generations of professionals. Paul's ability to pass on his professional experience is evidenced by the deep respect and reverence of the younger members of the team.

He has been with the Internet in the Czech Republic since its beginning. "My role was small, I was just flying some cables."  So he commented with self-effacing modesty on his role in this historic moment. But the reality is different.

Jan Gruntorád: We had a line ready, we had a router and we had a modem. We automatically assumed that the router and modem would come with a connection cable. But the cable didn't come. In order to get it, we would have had to reapply for licensing, which would have taken 3-4 months. Then Paul said: "Give me a day." It wasn't trivial to create such a cable, and not everyone could do it. If it weren't for Paul, who knows what would have happened then.

He was known for his perfect English. So perfect that, unbeknownst to many, he had translated several books. He was very willing and happy to help anyone with technical English texts.

Daniel Studený: I once asked him to check my English article for a technical report. Pavel was so perfect that he gave me back a completely different document with the same content.

He was also fluent in his mother tongue. He used refined style, although sometimes even old spelling, e.g. s/z (positive vs. positive), because - as he liked to say - you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But nothing was further from the truth. Throughout his professional career, he managed to keep up with the turbulent development of the IT industry, which was booming before his eyes, and where even younger colleagues were struggling and taking the path of narrower specialization.

He was able to learn practically anything. When CESNET began to look more comprehensively at computer and network security at the turn of the millennium, he was one of those who laid the groundwork at CESNET in this area. He was at the birth of the CESNET-CERTS team, the first security team established in the Czech Republic, participated in the formulation of its operation and was a key person in meeting the international conditions for the acceptance of this team into the European security space. He was a pioneer in the development of the first security tools and taught his colleagues to work with them; the systems are still running and still doing what Pavel imprinted them to do.

Aleš Padrta: I will never forget the first CESNET technical seminar and Pavel's iconic lecture on LaBrea (one of the first security tools). Pavel was not a showman in his lectures, but what he told you and how he told you, he made you sit in your chair. You just had to admire the enthusiasm and joy he had in imparting the information. His eyes shone with genuine joy as he reported how he was able to exhaust many of the attackers' resources so that they could not use them on users.

Pavel was very interested in war themes, especially border fortification systems. Perhaps it was in this area, where he also had deep knowledge, that he gained inspiration to fight against cyber attackers. The cake in the shape of a medieval castle (in its time it also acted as a fortress), which he received from close colleagues on his birthday, made him very happy.

In the introduction it was said that Pavel Vachek has left us forever. But this is not true, Pavel remains in us. Forever.