I found that I enjoyed writing many years ago, but I never made it a habit. Now it's time to correct that and make it happen. I'll be writing and sharing short posts over the next 30 days, every day. Mostly, I'm focusing on topics for security folks who are an army of one.

In 1849 economics was described as “the dismal science”, but today we might describe security as a “dismal profession.”. Like all dismal professions, society depends on those who work in ours.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that having standard operating procedures (SOPs) consistently makes things go better. Writing them isn’t the most exciting part of security, but if done well they continue to pay off over time. Let’s consider the use of SOPs in threat hunting.

I’m always on the lookout for good reports or articles about intrusions to evaluate defenses. They can be extremely useful in overlaying what adversaries are doing to a network.

The lesson to me is that writing consistently creates a bank of thoughts and ideas to tap on demand. Huh. What do you know….

You could almost call this a shortcut, but it obviously takes work up front. My presentation ideas may or may not be accepted, but (as with most things) I expect I will improve as I continue to work at it.

The flow of the presentation was written down and creating an outline of it was no problem. While I was at it, I saw that BSides Cache was looking for presentations, so I selected a different idea and submitted that one to them.

Then I looked at the small library of posts I had written and realized I had topics ready to go. It only took a few minutes to put together my presentation application, since I had already worked through the topic.

Some posts seem to get interest from folks, while others don’t. No big deal, I’m creating a habit. Last week I remembered that the CFP for SAINTCon was open, and I had planned on submitting a presentation. Ok, but what do I want to share? I felt stumped. Again.

Last month I decided to try out Ship 30 For 30 as a way to get into a regular writing habit. As part of this, you are supposed to write every day for 30 days. (Or nearly every day. Stuff happens.).

Last month I decided to try out Ship 30 for 30 as a way to get into a regular writing habit. As part of this, you are supposed to write every day for 30 days. (Or nearly every day. Stuff happens.). I’ve been working my way through the program for a bit over two weeks.

I’ve told myself for years that I’m not an ideas guy. This is really frustrating when I try to figure out a topic for a presentation at security conferences. It takes hours just come up with an idea. Last week I stumbled into a way to find topics in just a few minutes.

Threat hunting is challenging to take on when you are the only security person, but it can be done. It takes some heavy lifting in the beginning, then you are able to put it to work and make improvements over time.

Speaking in public makes a number of folks extremely nervous, but it's one of the best ways I've seen and experienced to build your reputation.