Year: 2014

As 2014 draws to a close here is a (not nearly complete) list of the lesson I learned this past year:

Ignore the sign: Jump in the bouncy castle.

There are two ways you can look at your life: What happened to you or What you did. You only get to pick one.

If you want the truth ask a 5 year old.

Find ways to forgive mistakes.

Not every problem has an entirely acceptable solution.

To get things done tell an amazing story.

Travel every chance you get. Travel makes you brave.

Be grateful for every moment you have. Every single one.

When you tell people that you do network security for a living they automatically think you are the worlds greatest hacker and that they are free to ask you to commit a federal crimes for. For the last couple of years I have started to keep a list of things people have asked me to hack to for an end of the year blog post.

My 2014 “Can you hack this for me” list:

A 3rd grader at my sons school asked me to hack his schools network so he could play mine craft. 

If I could hack “China” by a guy at Starbucks and “save America”.

If I could hack a politician’s Twitter account and Gmail account.

A coworker asked me to hack her husband’s email so she can delete an email she sent while mad.

A guy on a plane told me he would give me $20 if I hacked his ex-wives Gmail account.

The same guy asked (loudly) if I could hack the plane I was riding on after Scorpion premiered on TV.

I am not built for federal prison so I would never do any of the things above but please continue to ask me to commit federal crimes for you because I really enjoy writing this blog post every year.

I have been at my new job for a month today and after nine years at my old job it has been a different experience being part of a new team. Here are six things I learned this month that I figured were worth passing on. 

Transition From “You” To “We” Quickly.
Early on in a conversation I asked someone “Why do you do it that way?”  he politely corrected me to “Why do we do it that way”.  Once you get your security card and email account you need to transition from a them to an us mentality. 

Listen More Than You Talk. 
If you know me you know how hard this is for me. A good friend told me a great analyst strives for an hour meeting to be 55 minutes of the customer describing their problem and 5 minutes of you asking important questions. 

Find A Mentor.
If you are going to be successful you have to find someone to take you under their wing early and help you navigate your new environment.  I have found a couple people at my new company I already feel comfortable asking for advice. 

Ask dumb questions.
Don’t spend an hour trying to figure out how the copier works. Swallow your pride and ask someone how it works.  Trust me.

Learn The Language.
My new job is TLA (Three Letter Acronym) heavy.  The first week while I was in meetings I was just scribbling down every TLA I heard and at the end of the week I had 45 of them that were specific to my new job that I had never heard.  Understanding them and being able to use them really helped me feel like I belong. 

Admit You Don’t Know Everything.

My new job uses new technology and has different regulatory requirements from my old job and I am not up to speed on all of it yet.  I have found an honest “I don’t know but I will try to find out” is all that needs to be said. 

At the end of my first month my new job has a great culture and I am really enjoying my time in my first “start up” type company.  Also I am now really good at Madden. 

A couple of photos from around DC tonight. 

At my new job they have a fitbit step count challenge and if you can clock 40,000 steps in one day you can win a $100 gift card.  

The only problem is that there is no way in the world I will ever legitimately get 40,000 steps in one day (The closest I ever came was 25,000 steps one day in London and I was near exhaustion when I made it back to my room).

So if I was ever going to get 40,000 steps in one day I was going to have to cheat. Note: I am not really cheating, I am using a secondary fitbit account for this. 

Let me introduce you to Stepbot POC v.01:

With a $10 remote control car and a some electrical tape I can now average 120 steps a minute (172,800 a day) from the comfort of my desk chair. 

The future plans for the Stepbot include

• Stepper Motor and Stand.
• Raspberry PI Intgeration
• Software to control steps per minute with web interface. 

As I get ready to wrap up 9 years running network security for the Missouri House tomorrow I thought it would be a good time to do one of those blog posts where I sum up what I learned in a nice neat package.

So here are 5 things working in politics has taught me about infoSec (and life):

You can’t win every battle.
If you try to win every battle you won’t win any.  You have to pick the battles that are important to you and focus on winning those.

Favors are the most valuable thing in the world.
The most valuable thing in the world you can have is to have someone feel indebted to you.  You never know when you have to cash it in but it is always nice to know someone has your back when you really need it.

You can’t unsay things.
A politician can ruin their career by saying careless things without checking the facts or knowing their audience.  So can you.  

To have a successful project find people who care about your cause.
The first step to having a successful project is to find other people who are impassioned about the same thing.  If you can’t find those people your project will likely fail.

It isn’t personal.
If someone doesn’t think the same way you do on an issue doesn’t mean that they don’t like you (or that they are an idiot).  If you treat everyone who has a difference of opinion as you as an enemy it quickly becomes you versus the world.

I was challenged by my friend on Facebook to name 10 books the influenced my life.  I figured if I was going to put together a list I might as well put it on my blog.

So here are the 10 books in alphabetical order that have influenced my life:

48 Laws of Power
I read this book 4 or 5 years ago and decided that if this is what it took to be successful l didn’t want to be.  I would rather be a nice guy and be “unsuccessful” then to base my life on this book.

Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
You didn’t think I could make a list of my favorite books and not include one on roman history did you? Augustus found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world and laid the foundation for all of Western history to follow.

Maniac Magee
I read this book when I was in 5^th grade and having a hard time fitting in.  It really made a huge difference in the outlook in my life. I still love this book.  

Mere Christianity
I first read this book when I was so teetering on unbelief.  I’ve reread it many times since but that first read through was life altering.

Paddington Bear
I bought this book for my son when I was in London. He and I like to read it and laugh at Paddington. This book will always be special to me.

The Outsiders
I read this book in 8^th grade English. It is one of the best books I have read about class warfare and about how we all really just want to fit in.

The Pursuit of Happyness
A great story about how a man can drastically change his life if he never gives up.   One of the most inspirational stories I’ve ever read.

Titan
Titan is a biography of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and the world’s first billionaire. At its core it is about work ethic and about taking what you have and making something out of it without anyone’s help.

To Kill A Mocking Bird
To quote Homer Simpson ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ gave me no useful advice on killing mockingbirds but it did teach me not to judge a man based on the color of his skin.

You are not so smart
This book is a fun read. It talks about 48 things we do that don’t make any sense. After reading this book I started catching myself making a lot of irrational decisions on a daily basis.

I just returned from a week in London for the 4th annual 44CON.  I had an amazing time hosting a quiz, being on panel and giving a talk.

44CON is one of the best ran conferences that I attend. Adrian and Steve  both really care about the conference and it being entertaining and educational for the attendees.  44CON (like Derbycon) has figured out how to make the conference feel like a meeting of old friends and not a sales pitch or exhibitor expo.

My friend Dan Raywood has a bunch of good write ups on his IT Security Guru site about some of the talks.  You will want to check out his stories about running Doom on a hacked printer and wiping data from Android tablets.

Some other highlights were the converted red bus bar:

the amazing DJ they had on Thursday night:

and the badges:

As you are thinking about your training budget next year make sure you include a trip to London in September!

A couple of photos from around London.