Tag: Reflections

Posted in Cons, Goals, Informational, Research

Cyber Presentations

Posted on by Steph

So, one of my goals as I wrote before was to get better at public speaking. I worked on thos by applying for talks…even though it frankly terrifies me to think of being in front of a room full of people with all eyes on me. Luckily for my anxiety I got chosen to speak but both were to be pre-recorded.

Which is great because it still gets me speaking, but also doesn’t make me have to deal with the anxiety of the moment. It’s an important step and even an confidence boost to have my presentations be accepted. And even just being accepted and being able to add, Presenter @ so and so conference to my CV/Resume and speak on it in interviews has been helpful.

So, my advise this Saturday for someone trying to expand their cyber presence:

  • Make an effort to attend some conferences
  • If your interested apply to call for papers, you never know when something that seems interesting to you might be interesting to others
  • Its’s ok to have fears, we sll have them, but we cant let them control what we accomplish in life

Posted in Current Events, Informational, Research, Topic

Privacy in the Digital Age:

Posted on by Steph

Roe v. Wade

Again, had a post planned and instead news caused a different post.

Even before the Supreme Court officially struck down the Roe v. Wade decision and sent reproductive health issues back to the states there were stirrings questioning how incoming changes might effect health apps and data collection.

Living in today’s world people might not worry about how much of their information is readily collected or available. Perhaps, they’ve resigned themselves to the fact that they can’t stop their data being collected. There has been very little headway made in crafting some type of national privacy law, so it makes one feel like this is just inevitable, online privacy is your own concern.

For months before today reading through Twitter brought calls for women to remove period tracking apps and be more cognizant of how their data might be collected and in the future possibly subpoenaed as proof of some ‘reproductive crime’..

“Democrat lawmakers along with privacy advocates are now growing worried prosecutors in these anti-abortion states will use subpoenas to demand tech companies help them identify which users have visited an abortion provider.” -Michael Kan, PCMag.

I would definitely consider myself a privacy advocate. I think the majority of infosec people are concerned about privacy to some degree. It’s concerning that it really took something so dramatic to bring this conversation about data collection back to the foreground.

It can be proposed that perhaps we all just became too complacent in many ways…

How all this unfolds and develops is something to keep a definite eye on.

Posted in Burnout, Covid, Hiatus, Learning Woes

Burnout or When Burning the Candle at Both Ends goes Wrong…

Posted on by Steph
https://www.pexels.com/@eye4Dtail

Burnout: Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress.  -Psychology Today

So, like I said in my last post I accomplished a great deal next year, but I think overall  it cost me alot as well.  I was able to pass Cloud+, Pentest+, CYSA+, and Splunk Certified User.  I also completed my Master’s degree.  I Competed in 2 National Cyber League CTFs and lead one of my school’s teams each time.  I also had to deal with the demands at work that kind of intensified with co-workers coming and going. 

By November I really just felt tired.

I basically didn’t want to do anything at least career related and in some ways not even big life stuff.   So, because I know myself well enough I took December 2021-January 2022 off. I still worked, but I wasn’t like actively trying to like improve myself.

I didn’t want a little burnout to end up like:

https://www.pexels.com/@Adonyi-foto

Or Worse:

https://www.pexels.com/@Diego-Sanchez-44059283

I didn’t try to study for any new certs, didn’t try to find any challenging ctfs, didn’t take anymore classes, nothing. I just sailed for a bit instead of striving and trying to compensate for starting later than others or being newer to the field. I stopped telling myself I didn’t belong in the conversation or at the table because I just got here and needed to prove something and I just relaxed.

It’s hard to just relax and it’s super hard to silence the voices in your head telling you that you’re not as good or even the voices outside that say the same, but it’s important that we don’t let them overwhelm you and especially don’t let them talk over the voices of confidence.

Posted in Flashback Friday, Learning Woes

Flashback Friday 02/2020

Posted on by Steph

200 Hundred Days of Code

So, we talked about how structure and time are all warped in my head. Flashback to the #100DaysOfCode Challenge.

#100DaysOfCode is a challenge that designing to help people create a habit of coding on a daily basis. The thought is that by committing and posting daily on the things one did to further their coding goals the community works to hold each other accountable for fulfilling this commitment and meeting our personal goals.

I completed the challenge twice. Once, I was just moving towards doing a daily accountability and the second I focused on Javascript. The end result is that I completed the challenges , but it didn’t improve my habits. If nothing else having to complete it because I’d made a commitment kind of burned me out and at some points frustrated me to no end. I think for some it would create a habit and maybe if I had chosen a project to work on that I was passionate about it would have made it fun for me, but I didn’t and didn’t reflect enough about what I wanted and who I am to make a more informed choice before committing. If I was to do the challenge today I would probably concentrated on python for hackers/pentesters and writing scripts, because I think that would keep me interested, but I have a little too much on my plate currently to make that kind of commitment.

Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.

Norman Vincent Peale
def greet(name):
    print ('Hello', name)

greet('Jack')
greet('Jill')
greet('Bob')

I would recommend anyone to take up this challenge if they wanted to find a way to build habits. If you look on the site linked below it will show you that #100DaysOf_ can build habits in any number of subjects. I would just interject that if this is the choice to find something that is challenging and interesting enough to make you want to complete the challenge, not because it is a challenge, but because the project makes you passionate.

#100DaysofCode Site

Posted in Uncategorized

2019 – A Quick Reflection

Posted on by Steph

It is the end of 2019 and like most I want to take a moment to reflect on all the things that I actually have accomplished this year. Sometimes we can think too much about where we aren’t that we don’t focus on where we actually are and how far we have come. At the beginning of this year I had just changed careers and I was a little unsure of where or if I actually fit in. Now, I’m more self-assured and confident in my ability to learn and retain new things and the “rightness” of this course .

Accomplishments

  • Passed Network+
  • Passed Security+
  • Participated in First CTF (Individual and Group)
  • Started a Blog
  • Delved more into Cryptography
  • Cracked a Password
  • Finished my First Year in a Cybersecurity Position
  • Attended my first Cybersecurity Conference (Hacker Halted in Atlanta)
  • Finished Undergrad work (Only have my Capstone left)

But, it’s also good to look back at how we might have failed because epic-ly failing is how we level-up epic-ly.

Failures

  • My First CTF was a Bull in a China Shop Scenario
  • The Group work was worse; most of my group work across categories was kind of a bust (Pen-testing Methodology for a Class was the 1 exception)
  • Really buckling down and learning Linux…

 ”Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes.”

—Lawrence Bossidy

Upcoming….

  • CYSA+ (Taking the Beta in a few days…[crossed fingers])
  • Linux+ (Voucher has already been purchased)
  • Finish Undergrad and move directly onto Graduate Coursework
  • Build out Security Lab
  • Put a Dent in My InfoSec Book Collection
  • Get Better at Networking…

“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on. “

–Barack Obama