Introducing Always Be Curious by Damien (ABC by D)
A place for the cyber-curious, especially if you’re a fan of explainability.
A bit about me…
I’m the third of four kids, and the second of three boys: a classic middle child. I’ve always been curious, and most of my formal education I’ve never really used. Like most of you, learning on the job and in my spare time (podcasts, blogs, books, articles, YouTube, accosting cybersecurity celebrities on the floor of BlackHat and RSA) has been how I’ve grown and learned from people much smarter than me.
At 21, I was fortunate enough to discover that cybersecurity is my passion. From the moment I was told to figure out how to use a threat model for a program I was assigned to at Northrop Grumman, I was hooked.
Why Now?
Fast forward to a career that took me to CrowdStrike at 200ish employees through IPO, to Sydney Australia, and Palo Alto Networks, back to school at MIT for a Master’s in Engineering, and running Product for Arctic Wolf Labs, I’ve kept learning but never really “given back” to our community. That changes today.
I’ve taken a break from industry over the past couple of months, and am getting back into what makes me most passionate about cyber: the people. The best way to do that in my mind is to create a free-sharing open community.
Why a substack? Well, you’re most likely to retain what you teach, and as someone who wants to separate fact from anecdote (a repeatable offense I’ve committed many times on sales calls), it’s time to get as clear as possible. That means minimal jargon, and maximum explainability.
Community
The community I’d like to build here is for the cyber-curious. While my expertise is centered around enterprise/endpoint cyber (specifically threat intel, hunting and security operations), I would like to create a space where we can discover and learn more together.
From “low and slow” detection demystification to comparing hacks “then and now,” I’m going to clarify and dig deeper into a broad swath of cybersecurity topics. Specifically, I’ll be focusing primarily on threat hunting, threat intelligence, and the growing application of AI in cyber (and separate fact from fiction there too).
What to Expect?
Expectations create demands, and I’d like you as my audience to be demanding. If something doesn’t make sense, let me know! If you’d like to learn more about a topic, shoot me an email. I’ll be posting weekly blog posts ( 500ish words give or take) that are focused on the “prompt of the week.”
So sit back, like and subscribe, and reach out to me with any questions or prompts you’d like to have answered. In the words of the great Ted Lasso “stay curious.”
Stay curious, stay secure,
Damien