Study/code Sesh In Barnes And Noble After Work Today. Still In Search Of A Cozy Dimly Lit Coffee Shop

Celebrating international day of women and girls in STEM because in 2025 there are still men who will say to other men behind your back that you only got certain opportunities because you're a girl and/or because of your looks and/or because other men are attracted to you

@ august please be a little gentle with me I’m so tired

desk update/refresh

did a little bit of a refresh on my desk to make it a bit more cozy. $16 USD desk shelf from Amazon and a white monitor arm. Love the cozy vibes <3 new keyboard is the nuphy air60 v2 in white with cowberry switches.

it's exam day for Network+! I have been studying 2+ hours daily for this stupid cert for weeks on end.

Affirmations for the day

I will pass this test because I am knowledgeable of all areas of the content.

I have the problem solving skills necessary to figure out the answers to the questions.

I prepared adequately for this and I will pass.

Semester/End of Term Update

Hi internet people! Tomorrow is my final exam for my last class of the term so I figured I'd do a bit of a recap.

Classes Taken: 5

Credit hours: 19

Certifications gained: 3/10

I started my first term with WGU in October of 2023 and in that time completed 19 credit hours and five classes; two of which were certifications. WGU is a self paced online university which lets me go through classes much faster than I would at a brick & mortar. Being able to do one class at a time has been such a huge lifesaver with my ADHD. I can only focus on one thing at a time. It did kind of kick me in the ass with Linux though, because I couldn't make myself concentrate on it for my life.

I'm tentatively scheduled for 26 credits next term and I'm not 100% sure if I will end up meeting that goal. I hope so though! My next certifications are Network+ and Security+ which should help me get a government sector job and up my pay a little bit.

On another note: I finally finished the Crescent City series from Sarah J Maas last night and woweee is it a rollercoaster. Next reads are the Atlas Complex and a nonfiction duology on Germanic paganism and folk magic.

a masterpiece of tragedy

moment in love

An Introduction to Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is all about securing technology and processes - making sure that the software, hardware, and networks that run the world do exactly what they need to do and can't be abused by bad actors.

The CIA triad is a concept used to explain the three goals of cybersecurity. The pieces are:

Confidentiality: ensuring that information is kept secret, so it can only be viewed by the people who are allowed to do so. This involves encrypting data, requiring authentication before viewing data, and more.

Integrity: ensuring that information is trustworthy and cannot be tampered with. For example, this involves making sure that no one changes the contents of the file you're trying to download or intercepts your text messages.

Availability: ensuring that the services you need are there when you need them. Blocking every single person from accessing a piece of valuable information would be secure, but completely unusable, so we have to think about availability. This can also mean blocking DDoS attacks or fixing flaws in software that cause crashes or service issues.

What are some specializations within cybersecurity? What do cybersecurity professionals do?

incident response

digital forensics (often combined with incident response in the acronym DFIR)

reverse engineering

cryptography

governance/compliance/risk management

penetration testing/ethical hacking

vulnerability research/bug bounty

threat intelligence

cloud security

industrial/IoT security, often called Operational Technology (OT)

security engineering/writing code for cybersecurity tools (this is what I do!)

and more!

Where do cybersecurity professionals work?

I view the industry in three big chunks: vendors, everyday companies (for lack of a better term), and government. It's more complicated than that, but it helps.

Vendors make and sell security tools or services to other companies. Some examples are Crowdstrike, Cisco, Microsoft, Palo Alto, EY, etc. Vendors can be giant multinational corporations or small startups. Security tools can include software and hardware, while services can include consulting, technical support, or incident response or digital forensics services. Some companies are Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), which means that they serve as the security team for many other (often small) businesses.

Everyday companies include everyone from giant companies like Coca-Cola to the mom and pop shop down the street. Every company is a tech company now, and someone has to be in charge of securing things. Some businesses will have their own internal security teams that respond to incidents. Many companies buy tools provided by vendors like the ones above, and someone has to manage them. Small companies with small tech departments might dump all cybersecurity responsibilities on the IT team (or outsource things to a MSSP), or larger ones may have a dedicated security staff.

Government cybersecurity work can involve a lot of things, from securing the local water supply to working for the big three letter agencies. In the U.S. at least, there are also a lot of government contractors, who are their own individual companies but the vast majority of what they do is for the government. MITRE is one example, and the federal research labs and some university-affiliated labs are an extension of this. Government work and military contractor work are where geopolitics and ethics come into play most clearly, so just… be mindful.

What do academics in cybersecurity research?

A wide variety of things! You can get a good idea by browsing the papers from the ACM's Computer and Communications Security Conference. Some of the big research areas that I'm aware of are:

cryptography & post-quantum cryptography

machine learning model security & alignment

formal proofs of a program & programming language security

security & privacy

security of network protocols

vulnerability research & developing new attack vectors

Cybersecurity seems niche at first, but it actually covers a huge range of topics all across technology and policy. It's vital to running the world today, and I'm obviously biased but I think it's a fascinating topic to learn about. I'll be posting a new cybersecurity masterpost each day this week as a part of the #StudyblrMasterpostJam, so keep an eye out for tomorrow's post! In the meantime, check out the tag and see what other folks are posting about :D

A cosmic tribute to my current favourite comment in YouTube history