Back In The Saddle Again

Where I’ve been

When I started this cybersecurity blog last year, I was excited to share my journey and insights with others in the field. However, after researching blogging methods and setting up a streamlined process, I ended up abandoning the project. Looking back, I realized that the fear of imperfection and the question of ‘what’s the point?’ held me back. But now, I’m determined to overcome those obstacles and start blogging again, not only to improve my own skills but also in hopes of inspiring someone else in the cybersecurity community starting like I did.

That’s not to say I didn’t think about blogging or even give up altogether. I actually created a 4 part series of blog posts I planned to put out, but they never left my drafts folder. There were some legitimate reasons for not dedicating time to blogging: I moved across the country, work got busy and I was putting more of my creativity into that, and I had other goals I ended up putting more effort into (which included publishing my first iOS app!), but other people do these things all the time and still make time to blog, so it can’t just be that.

I think it came down to two major things for me:

Imperfection

The fear of imperfection is crippling. I am someone who used to not be afraid of failure and would try a lot of new things. I remember as a kid being willing to try new things all the time, but as I start my career, I find myself shying away from opportunities that could lead to failure. You can’t have success without some failure, but I still find myself falling for the lie that not trying something is better than trying and failing. Blogging is one of the ways I plan to try to start trying new things again. Writing gets me out of my comfort zone and allows me to explore new ideas while (hopefully) sharing useful information with others like me!

What’s the point?

My other struggle was the question of “What’s the point? There are already thousands of cybersecurity blogs. What will this blog offer that is missing?”. I haven’t fully solved this question, but I still think there is a point or I wouldn’t be doing it.

One positive aspect of blogging is that it helps me grow. It helps me think critically and commit to one position or another. I also want to blog is because I sometimes find a random post with a little nugget of information that is extremely useful. I want to be that blog, even if it’s just for one person!

As part of my own growth, I plan to pick up where I left off.

What I’ve Been Doing Since

(CactusCon!)

Over the last year I moved to a different state, and it helped prod me to get out there more. I started attending a monthly meetup of cybersecurity professionals, which has been really fun. It’s nice to be able to get together to talk about the recent happenings in the InfoSec space and commiserate about the shortcoming of one technology or another together.

I also went to CactusCon for the first time, which was very inspiring. Even the talks on tools I use all the time, like Bloodhound, gave me completely new ways to use them. I didn’t attend all the sessions, but I got to meet some of the people who are responsible for a ton of great cybersecurity content, like John Strand, n00py, and Mike Felch! I think I got more out of the two minute conversations I had with each of them than I got out of many of the talks. I definitely hope to attend more of these events in the future.

Finally, my work provided me an opportunity to get a new certificate, which is something I haven’t attempted for a while. It was great to get back in the saddle again and I can now say I am GPEN certified. I consider this to be a much higher quality certificate than the CEH that I got a few years ago.

My Vision Going Forward

So what are my plans now? I am all about achievable goals that create habits rather than burning out because I tried to bite off too much. For that reason, I plan to commit to two goals with the hopes of finding my pace and hopefully adding more over time.

First, I want to start posting on this blog at least monthly. If I have more to say, I will post more frequently, but my goal is to at least consistently post monthly, even if it’s not super long, anything is progress.

Second, I plan on dusting off my completely amateur coding skills and trying to increase the value I bring to the community. This goal starts small, with me starting to develop and support tools for my team at work. From there, I hope to start making contributions to public tools (ideally the tools I use frequently) and maybe even publishing a tool or two of my own at one point. The goal here will be to be learning as I go and trying to help someone out there who doesn’t have the skills and/or the time right now.

So in conclusion, I hope to actual start adding value to the community and return a little bit of the help I’ve received from countless blogs, tweets, and videos. I’m far from being an expert in cybersecurity, but I hope that the little bit I can add is useful to someone out there, even if that just means allowing someone to chuckle at my ramblings and in turn feeling more confident about their own skills.