Welcome (back) to my weekly update post! As always, if you want to skip to the picture of the dogs, just click here. Let me also start by saying that Black Lives Matter! As I do every week, I'm going to share what I did last week and without any further adieu, let's just dive right in!
I mentioned in the previous post that I started playing Eve Online. Well, that didn't even last two weeks.... What a frustrating game! I spent a bunch of time grinding to get to the point where I could accept level 2 missions, then spent an entire day and wasted 10 million ISK (the money in Eve) trying to complete just that first mission. When my ship was blown up for the last time, and I realized it would take me two million ISK and about an hour of flying around just to be able to play the game again, I quit for the second time. Maybe it will be my last (I am a glutton for punishment and might convince myself to try again), but that seems highly unlikely at this point.
While I can understand and appreciate games that are challenging (I played Rust for quite some time, and I have my eye on Elden Ring when I eventually get a non-Nintend-built console), there is a limit! When a game starts to be more grind than fun, that's when I feel the need rising to walk away, and Eve is a game that feels like almost constant grinding! I played for roughly two weeks almost every day and still had to spend more time than could/should be reasonably expected reading wiki posts just to understand how to play. When success seems to require grouping up, I immediately start to lose even more interest and at a much faster clip. I absolutely do not want to find myself beholden to others just to play a game. If I have ten minutes and want to get down, I don't want to have to wait for a buddy or three to come online. This is a big part of the reason I moved away from CS:GO (AKA Counterstrike: Global Offensive), because playing solo online is a miserable experience! That isn't the only reason, but I don't want to get bogged down in a critique of CS:GO.
All that is a super long way of writing that my quest for a new computer game on Mac continues! I've mentioned that I have a Linux box up and running, and I considered using it to do some gaming (since things are much beter than they used to be), but for now I'm going to put that on the backburner. That's because my plan is still to use the box for offensive security research and if I start gaming on it, the likelihood that I will use it for research goes down drastically!
Shifting gears, last weekend I discovered what may be my new favorite show, if not it's easily in my top five. It's called The Good Place and although it's been off the air for two years, I only just discovered it, so it is new to me. I'm sure that it's because of my bias (I read stoic philosophy for fun) or my academic training (I have mentioned before that I hold a BA in Philosophy), but I love that philosophy is one of the central focuses of the show. Having a professor of moral philosophy as one of the main characters means that nearly every episode contains some discussion of philosophy, which seems rare these days.
I have only finished the first two seasons, so I don't know if it going to get better or worse. What I do know is that Season 1, Episode 13 was so funny I laughed until I almost threw up! In fact, it was so funny I had to pause the TV (in an effort to avoid falling off the couch and into the ground) and then had to go do something boring just to maintain composure. I stood there chuckling at the kitchen sink as I washed dishes, and even the next day it still brings a grin to my face just thinking about it.
Shifting gears, I think I remember mentioning in a previous post that I was leaving my current job. I had been spending a bunch of time talking to other companies and going through interviews. Well, Tuesday is my last day at Synopsys and during my final two weeks I've actually had the chance to work on very interesting projects! Specifically, I had the opportunity to do a Kubernetes cluster pentest and this week I'm testing an AS400. I've wanted to test an AS400 ever since I first heard this talk, called "Everything Old Is New Again" from GrrCon 2012. Mike "Clappymonkey" Kemp (Rest In Power) has many great lines but one of my favorites (and I will paraphrase beacuse I don't remember exactly how he put it) is, "legacy tech is full of win." Despite being ten years old at this point, most of what was mentioned in that talk remains true today. In some cases, these issues have only become worse.
While I will not mention the client, what I will share is that I rooted that AS400 last week! This was really exciting because it's been quite some time since I rooted a box on a client engagement. It will forever fill my heart with pride to know that the last billable project I did as a consultant resulted in getting (the AS400 equivalent to) root!
Do I mean that this will be the last time I do consulting work? Almost certainly not! However, I am moving from a day to day role as a consultant to an in-house opportunity, so it will probably be a while before I do any more consulting. Which, honestly, is fine with me! I've learned a ton from consulting, but I am looking forward to moving into a role with more stability and consistency. I'm also looking forward to working with a team to help make one organization more secure, as opposed to writing reports that may or may not get read. There is no guarantee you can convince a client to secure the system they paid you to test. Sometimes they didn't have you test it to make it more secure. Perhaps that's because they were only testing for a compliance checkbox and they just need to prove they had a test done. Different orgs get penetration testing for difference reasons. However, it will be nice to have the opportunity to stay at just one company for more than six months.
Shifting gears, I want to share briefly some future blog posts I have cooking. In addition to working on the next part of my philosophy series, I am also planning on writing up something about what I learned over the last five years of offensive security consulting. I'm going to have just shy of two weeks between leaving Synopsys and starting my new opportunity. In addition to relaxing and playing a bunch of chess, I'm also hoping to find the time to work on some hacking/programming projects, as well as to write the articles mentioned above.
Well, that's about all I have to report for this week. My dogs have been very patient this morning, but they are telling me that it is time to finish up and take them for walkies and then play fetch. When I wrote the first draft of this, I mentioned that they will start wrestling each other, and by the time I am typing this now they are both giving me really dirty looks, so I had better just finish up! Let me close by sharing that I appreciate you taking the time to read this far. I hope you enjoyed it, and that you have a most excellent day and a great rest of your week. Cheers, internet friend!