Watching reruns as a child, I saw other kids on the shows sitting in front of radios.  Maybe new shows had them sitting in front of TVs.  But I found my childhood self spending time in front of a new technology procured by my dad, the PC.  A few movies I would see later had some semblance of my experience (How about Global Thermonuclear War?).  That IBM PC XT had an EGA screen and dual 5 1/4″ floppies.  No hard drive.  While I would spend hours playing Wheel of Fortune, I also learned to program MS-DOS and manipulate WordPerfect to make grids for crosswords.  Next came upgrades and replacements, faster processors, more memory.  And the modem; a portal to bulletin boards, StarText, Prodigy, etc.  This thing now connected me to the world!

Whether it was helping out in the high school technology center, assisting damsels in distress connect to the university’s systems, or maintaining systems for employers, computers became omnipresent.  Even recording music and doing post production work changed right as I entered the field, relying much more on software and remote recording than ever before.  In early 2005 I caught up with an old friend over beers in Austin and was presented an opportunity to help others again, this time doing information security consulting.  I honed up my skillset and got to work.

I’ve now had the pleasure to work with incredibly large corporations, small service providers that employee one IT guy, and everything in between.  The work has at times leaned technical, at others it’s been more strategic.  I’ve also come into this career in line with the rise of PCI and have benefitted from the breadth of that standard.  Working with companies not just on their firewall configuration or privacy policy deployment but around their entire information security posture has exposed me to an amazing array of experiences.  Every day it’s something new.

Five years later, I find I am still discovering security.

My hope is to share a little of that discovery and make it yours.

This site will focus around the following classes of posts:

• Links – I’ve been an ardent RSS subscriber and feel that sharing the knowledge that others put out into the ether is imperative.
• 101s – Short articles focusing on basics that help me form cogent thoughts on infosec and might help others
• Techinals – More specific articles focusing on security techniques or practical applications
• Book Reports – Whether good or bad, these monthly (?) columns will hopefully keep my reading on track
• Op Eds – Longer articles sharing my opinion on infosec topics or industry developments

As my career moves in and out of specializations, those will probably take up more post space than other topics.  However, a view from up high, that 35,000 foot view I enjoy while heading to my next client engagement, will always have space to fill as well.

I welcome feedback, discussion and hope to see many of my colleagues around the country in the near future.  Enjoy the discovery!