Leading Experts
A friend of mine recently asked for my thoughts on leading people who have more experience or expertise in a topic than they do; this is an important question and one that I felt deserved more thought and exploration. Leading people can be difficult, but when leading people that know more than you do about a given topic, it’s a different challenge. This was particularly well-timed, as I’ve found myself in just that situation, as I’ve just hired a specialist in incident response.
Read more…Developers, Developers, Developers
Note: This was written in 2012, but not published at the time. The point is still valid, perhaps moreso than ever and deserves to be made publicly. The content has been updated as appropriate, though the core of this article remains intact from the 2012 draft. I would like to note that this doesn’t apply to every environment, there are some where developers are very knowledgeable about security, and write code with minimal issues – my current employer happens to be one of those rare & exciting places.
Read more…Write Like You Are Running Out of Time
The cultural phenomenon that is Hamilton, brought back to the forefront due to its streaming release, is an artistic feat, but it also serves as an opportunity to refresh our memories on the history behind these characters, and look for opportunities to learn lessons that apply today. This is exactly what I’ve been doing. For all of his flaws, one thing that I have to respect about Alexander Hamilton (as well as his wife, Eliza) is the understanding of the long-term impact of the written word.
Read more…Dezinformatsiya
I recently wrote a review on Active Measures by Thomas Rid – which helped me to solidify my thoughts on social media, and the impact it has on society. While Active Measures is focused on disinformation campaigns, it also speaks to the vulnerabilities in humans that allow these campaigns to work. Disinformation is a substantial issue today, and not just in terms of election interference, public health, or international relations – but also in much smaller scale unorganized efforts to alter perception.
Read more…Book Review: Active Measures
Thomas Rid has delivered with Active Measures, it’s clear, surprisingly entertaining, and extremely well sourced. This is a must-read if you want to understand how disinformation operations work, and more importantly, how we managed to find ourselves in a world where it’s hard to trust anything. The book starts with the birth of modern disinformation in the 1920s, following the advances, successes and failures, though to the fiasco that was the 2016 elections.
Read more…Checklist: Starting a Security Consulting Firm
Recently a friend of mine asked for input on what would be needed to launch a new security consulting company, to help him out I drafted a detailed list of what would need to be done for a successful launch. Here is an expanded version of that list, hopefully others will find this useful as well. This isn’t the simplest route to setting up a new business, but is intended to set the business up for long-term success.
Read more…YAWAST: News & Mission
It’s been some time since I last wrote about YAWAST on here, it was actually back in April when I posted the last update – that was for the release of YAWAST v0.7.0. Currently, it’s at version 0.11.0 and a lot has changed. It’s been rewritten from scratch, more people have become involved, it has moved to a (fairly) regular release cycle, and has expanded a fair bit in terms of functionality.
Read more…Utilitarian Nightmare: Offensive Security Tools
Or: Ethical Decision Making for Security Researchers. There has been much discussion recently on the appropriateness of releasing offensive security tools to the world – while this storm has largely come and gone on Twitter, it’s something I still find myself thinking about. It boils down to a simple question, is it ethical to release tools that make it easy for attackers to leverage vulnerabilities that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to?
Read more…Insane Ideas: Blockchain-Based Automated Investment System
This is part of the Insane Ideas series. A group of blog posts that detail ideas, possible projects, or concepts that may be of interest. These are ideas that I don’t plan to pursue, and are thus available to any and all that would like to do something with them. I hope you find some inspiration – or at least some amusement in this. A few months ago I was reading about high-frequency trading (HFT) – algorithms that allow investors to make money essentially out of nothing by executing trades at high speed, and leveraging the natural (and artificial) volatility of the market.
Read more…YAWAST v0.7 Released
It has now been over a year since the last major release of YAWAST, but today I am happy to release version 0.7, which is one of the largest changes to date. This is the result of substantial effort to ensure that YAWAST continues to be useful in the future, and add as much value as possible to those performing security testing of web applications. If you are using the Gem version, simply run gem update yawast to get the latest version.
Read more…
About Me
Security researcher, engineer and software developer with more than 20 years of experience.
Work: I primarily focus on application security, usable security, secure communications, and cryptography. I build and lead strong and dynamic teams, who cover all facets of security and privacy.
Writing: I write about my research, security in general, development and software design, and leadership through my blog, essays, and various publications. I also engage in some creating writing when I can.
Photography: I am a purist fine art photographer, working primarily in black & white, and focused on sharing new perspectives of the world. Limited edition prints of my work are available on my online gallery. I also have a background in photojournalism, and volunteer in this field when I can.