London, UK -  Cyber security professional specialising in detection and response, blogging about technology, business, and life to scratch a writing itch from a previous life as a journalist

Recent blog posts

Quality products begin with detail-obsessed leaders
 -  It often feels like modern business is stuck in a loop. An idea is successful, there is a push to scale it as far and quickly as possible, and it’s optimised to within an inch of its life - but normally only in the name of profit. Usually this results...
Bluesky's nearly there, but it won't replace X just yet
 -  Bluesky was an indirect product of Elon Musk’s controversial 2022 Twitter takeover, pitched as a decentralised, user-first alternative to the site that became X. Originally a side project funded by Twitter itself, its new goal is to stand on its own two feet as a more open, interoperable social network....
When you travel, the real journey isn't photographed
 -  Last week, I played tour guide for some visitors from overseas - first in London, and then in my hometown. It was exhausting, but it came with an unexpected side effect: it made me see those places differently. It’s hard to take your city for granted when you walk familiar...
Staying productive when everything feels urgent
 -  We’ve all been there. One day you’re in control, the next you’re racing from meeting to meeting, unable to focus long enough to move anything forward in any meaningful way - unless, that is, you start protecting your time. When everything feels urgent and your calendar is under siege, the...
Humanising AI encourages intellectual lethargy
 -  I recently stumbled upon a Hacker News thread around a series of X posts about ChatGPT’s o3 model. Researchers noted that it “frequently fabricates actions it never took, and then elaborately justifies those actions when confronted”, in one case claiming to have received an incorrect result by running code on...
Finding comfort in the green hills outside my window
 -  As I mentioned in a recent post, I moved to a new home a few months ago. My new place sits atop a hill, and the window to the right of my desk happens to look away from the city, over the tops of the houses opposite and off into...
Fixing weak WiFi and slow speeds on my home network
 -  I moved to a new home late last year, and immediately faced a whole range of connectivity issues. For a techie like myself, reliant on a functional network both for work and for fun, that was a big problem. So I implemented a few different solutions to find a fix...
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) - setting the record straight
 -  When I went to bed on the evening of Friday 19th July, I couldn’t sleep. It was a stuffy summer’s night in London, and the adrenaline was still pumping through my veins after one of the more notable days in recent memory for cyber security. Still, laying awake gave me...
Centralisation, repeatability, and automation in a modular SOC
 -  The dictionary definition of “modular” leaves a little to be desired: “Employing or involving a module or modules as the basis of design or construction.” What is implied, but that I would make explicit, is that parts of the whole can be swapped out easily while maintaining the functionality of...
Cyber security sometimes means learning things backwards
 -  Stick around cyber security Twitter or LinkedIn for long enough and you’ll likely see somebody raise a question about how to get into the industry. You’ll also likely see a reply that describes a kind of rite of passage from sysadmin, to SOC analyst, to just about any other security...

Thinking about

Digital journalism
Coincidentally, in the space of a week I encountered both Zach Seward's article about Quartz and Craig Mod's excellent podcasts with Tim Ferriss. Both evoked fond memories of my time in journalism and the buzz surrounding digital journalism and media in the 2010s

Interests

  • Cyber security
  • Tech
  • Python
  • PowerShell
  • JavaScript
  • F1
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Psychology
  • Philosophy
  • Exercise
  • Running
  • Gaming
  • Football
  • Music
  • Guitar