The Ethical Hacker

I remember the first time I got hacked. That was a fun learning experience. I lost some accounts with embarassingly guessable passwords and weak (or non-existant) MFA. I'm not ashamed to have lost them as they were weakly secured since I barely used those accounts, but it happened. After that experience my outlook on the digital landscape changed drastically. Everywhere I looked was a device, potentially connected to other devices over the internet, sharing my private information without my consent. Spying on my every move. Sounds creepy, because it is. All that made me somewhat borderline paranoid about privacy. I started covering my tracks when I could using proxies or privacy focused software and hardware. I began researching about how to implement secure coding practices so nothing I ever developed could be vulnerable. Nevertheless, vulnerabilities arise in many different ways. Just ask Mikko Hyppönen, he's a brilliant Finnish cybersecurity researcher who was able to track and disect some of the first Windows malware which was distributed via floppy disk! He's also the proponent of the phrase: "If it's Smart, it's Vulnerable" (which comes from his book of the same title). This is why I always make due diligence in researching what technologies I use, and for what I use them.

I attended my first DEFCON, a world-renowned cybersecurity convention held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2021. It was a mind-altering experience. Much like Disneyland, but for nerds and hackers. Ever since that first day hacking WiFi packets inside of a techno rave ballroom I decided that this was something that I truly enjoyed learning about. I set off on my path to become an Ethical Hacker. Since then I have attended DEFCON 30 and 31 in which I actually met Mikko himself! He gave an interesting talk about his experience in cyber-gang-warfare in his home country as he investigated Russian hacker syndicates.

Through my work as a Developer and Ethical Hacker, my goal is to make sure nobody has to go through the traumatic experience of being a victim to theft or fruad on the internet. I am currently working on 4 different kinds of certifications that will aid in this journey. You can expect to hear more about these as I complete them in the near future...