2017-11-26 -  I was aware of the recent stories – an increasing number of people claiming that Facebook’s apps were listening in on their conversations and serving up ads based on what they’d heard – but I’d always thought this assumption was based on ignorance of how online advertising works, and when...

2017-11-24 -  If you hadn’t already heard, I’ve been experimenting with some Python recently, trying to build on the foundation that I picked up at the SANS Cyber Retraining Academy. While I’d already had some success playing around with isolated little scripts, I decided it was time to start pulling data from...

2017-11-18 -  I won’t just remember 2017 as the year I made the jump into the cyber security industry – I’ll also remember it as the year I properly welcomed podcasts into my life. I now listen to a wide range of shows, from daft comedies like My Brother, My Brother and Me...

2017-11-11 -  A lot has happened since April. In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t blogged about it, so I wanted to give an update. Also, I was tired of seeing Rick and Morty at the top of my website and needed to publish something new to push that down the homepage...

2017-04-03 -  Rick and Morty returned this weekend, and the third season premiere unexpectedly showcased just how devastating a successful command injection attack can be. Held prisoner in a simulation of his own memories, sometimes-great, always-mad scientist Rick Sanchez is forced to relive the moment he created his portal gun so his...

2017-03-27 -  The SANS Cyber Retraining Academy concludes this week, but before graduation there was time for students to take one last GIAC examination to assess our incident handling skills. I’d already passed the GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) exam with 94 per cent a few weeks ago, but I was more nervous...

2017-03-24 -  This week was all about hacking at the SANS Cyber Retraining Academy, as students attempted to take control of a drone before embarking on a two-day Netwars capture the flag marathon. The challenges spanned a huge range of skills – we found ourselves doing everything from setting up backdoors and...

2017-03-18 -  I used to swear by macOS, but in recent years I found performance dropping and frustration growing. Luckily, my eyes were opened to what a great alternative Linux has become. Since 2009, I’ve been a pretty consistent user of macOS – or OS X, as it was called until recently....

2017-03-09 -  We shouldn’t be surprised that organisations like the CIA are using technology to monitor people of interest to them, but the weaknesses they knowingly leave behind are a big concern. This week, along with other students at the SANS Cyber Retraining Academy, I completed two capture the flag challenges. I...

2017-02-24 -  At the beginning of this year I embarked upon a new adventure in cyber security with the government-backed SANS Cyber Retraining Academy. At the end of week five – the course’s halfway point – I figured it was time for an update on how things are going. If I were...