Allan
@allanfriedman
SBOM Champion. Paranoid about supply chains of all kinds. Former full-service technocrat at CISA, NTIA. Lapsed{engineer, academic, author}. Now wandering the world doing acts of infosec-goodness, & occasionally getting paid for it. Poster of food pics.
So long, Black Hat. Hello, DEF CON! time for my annual wardrobe change. Some people code-switch. I coat-switch.
And so it begins. See yinz in the desert! I’ll be at @bsideslv.org for the first half of the week.
A fun familiar name in today’s Catfishing game. What’s that? You don’t play Catfishing, the daily trivia game where you try to guess the Wikipedia article based on a curated list of the categories? If you are a trivia person, you should probably add this to your daily fun. catfishing.net
Nice crowd at the DC wharf for the final. A pretty great cross section of this city, and a fun vibe.
A great presentation by @pylos.co at @istorg.bsky.social ‘s Critical Effect on how botnets are being used as a “neutral web” for staging and battlegrounds for OT attacks. This requires rethinking our tools, policies, and doctrines.
I don’t always go for AI images, but a recent signal group discussion inspired me. “AI Snake Oil - Don’t bolt on security without it!”
Some leftover crabs from Memorial Day crab feasts —> crab roe angel hair pasta. So rich and delicious.
Friends: in light of recent news, may I encourage you to get the Shingles Vaccine if you are eligible (over 50 or have immune system issues) & encourage others in your life to get it. Shingles took me out for two whole months last year and was incredibly painful. Still get shooting nerve pain.
Hooked onto spring produce this year. In addition to fun with ramps, I managed to find some fiddleheads for sale. So we get some tasty pickles.
Local asparagus is here! A slightly schmancy brunch with a quick hollandaise.
20 lb of usda prime brisket. Going to be a late night tonight, but a delicious dinner tomorrow.
Last day of RSAC conference. Once more into the breach [response and recovery AI tooling sales talks]!
@k8em0.bsky.social blows away @bsidessf.org by singing a very sarcastic “You’ll Adapt” to the tune of Hamilton’s “You’ll be back.” Her talk did not shy away from the potential human impact of a massive shift to automation, and the need to think about politics in this context.
Amazing opening keynote at @bsidessf.org by my old con buddy Anna Westelius making the strong and energizing case for *optimism* in a very tumultuous time for the security community. Full summary here: www.linkedin.com/posts/allana...
A nice moment in the McRary Institute Cyber Summit. Army Cyber Advisor Brett Pugh acknowledges that CISA and its hardworking expert staff are carrying on with their critical mission without getting paid.
Tired: the meeting could have been an email. Wired: This email could have been both written and read by an LLM.
@cillic.bsky.social - we were apparently the only people to ever order this voluntarily, and we killed the bottle.
A gorgeous 2 mile walk across DC and the National Mall to make it to Day 2 of @districtcon.bsky.social and the entertaining keynote by Daniel Ridge. Feels pretty special… “hackers now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,”
Spending a Sunday defrosting a freezer and replacing the door gasket. Also discovering some fun things tucked away in the depths: really good butter, duck quarters, bags of pitted tart cherries.
When you’ve stayed up later than your bed time to celebrate properly with good people. Happy New Year, friends.
Did an eggnog taste test, and was surprised to find that I liked the supermarket brands over our local creamery.
A nice crisp autumn day for playing in the kitchen. Smoked lamb shanks, and breaking down pumpkins for kaddo bourani, the Helmand-inspired candied pumpkin w meat sauce.