Well, not quite exactly frequent, but certainly with more joy than is usually reserved for the obituary pages.
That’s right baby, I’m BACK.
What better way to round out one right bastard of a week than catching up with old Myrcurial…
Don’t answer that question, it was rhetorical, please click to read more about where I’ve been for 97 days.
The facts are as follows:
- I’m lousy at keeping up with non-functional requirements.
- Work has been… ahem… busy.
- I’ve been adjusting to some new medication for ADHD/ADD/freaky brain syndrome
- The work environment… well… it’s not been conducive to getting work done and I’ve only just been able to take the time lately to remedy any of that.
- Have you noticed that life just seems to go faster when you’re in your mid 30s?
- What I’ve had to say has been too difficult to make sufficiently generic for a forum such as this.
- I’ve been tired.
- The security “business” has me down.
- Frankly, I’m a lazy bitch.
- Leopard… you sweet sexy Operating System you…
- Excuses are something I learned from users.
- I’ve taken time for life and spent more than the requisite amount of time playing with my kids.
- My job has a certain… soul-sucking element to it right now.
- I may or may not have forgotten my password to post on LSD.
The reality is that between the three computers that I use every day and google docs, I’ve probably got about 10 partial or half finished entries.
All of them went from funny and good… to bitchy and whiny… to… well… worse.
The past two weeks or so has been really good though. I’ve had a few speaking opportunities, I’ve stretched my legs on a good bike ride, the home office is just working, and overall, I’m ready to share more with you all.
Next week is going to be a big week in the Canadian Infosec scene with the first real security conference to hit the central/east half of the country in the form of SecTor07. I’m quite happy that I’ve managed to find enough wriggle room to attend this inaugural event (for a long time, it didn’t look like it was going to happen) and I’m especially charged up because at least one of the presentations is *not* a technical take down on yet another minute piece of blinky-light esoterica. If you’ve got the chance to attend the first keynote presentation, I’d highly recommend it – I have a preview copy of the slide deck and it hits the nail on the head.
As an aside, has anyone looked at the graphs for number of valid CISSP certifications per year compared to average years of experience per CISSP certification?
Have a look, if you’re smart, you won’t be surprised. If you’re surprised or don’t get the point, well… that means you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution – please collect a CPE credit for the time you spent squinting at data and move along.
Back to where I was… oh hey… that’s a perfect segue into this chunk of text from September 17th…
Information Security Professionals.
The Information Security industry seems to attract two different types of people. These two types of people are fairly polarized from each other. In and of itself, this isn’t a bad thing. We’ll call these two types “A” and “S”.
Information Security Type “A” – Atypical
The typical type A has come to security through a “non-traditional” route – and is typically not a holder of a degree in one of the traditional feeder disciplines of computer science or accounting. This lack of a formal education is often a good thing – the individual tends to lack a number of preconceived notions about “how things should be” and tends to operate from an intuition that will tend to generate outcomes which are correct despite the fact that the individual cannot tell you how they arrived at the outcome. They tend to place their trust in attempting to do right things most of the time and ensuring that risks are well articulated to business leaders.
Information Security Type “S” – Standard
The typical type S holds a degree either in computer science or accounting. They prefer a methodological approach to security where actual numbers are input into equations that quantify all risks and where “weirdness” does not happen. They are marked by a tendency to get a little shrill when users (both trusted and untrusted) do things that they have not pre-computed as possible. They tend to place their trust in people with be-dazzled leather jackets.
You can guess which kind I am. And you can guess which kind have been getting on my nerves lately.
As you’ll see, I was in fine form 2 months ago.
These days, my anger and rage has been replaced by calm as I bend like the slender reed and let the ass-hattery of my life pass over and through me without tossing me against the rocks.
I haven’t quit my day job (although I’ve been close exactly 3 times in 97 days), you don’t have to either, you just have to suck it up and make it through. Karma is a bitch, she’s cranky and sometimes slow, but if you’re persistent, she’ll be there to back you someday.
PS: Mad props for my wife – she’s had to put up with me for the last 97 days. Aren’t you glad you’re not her!
PPS: Please tell dear Dave to do the CanSecWest08 thing. It’s about time he got up on stage.
[tags]whining, ranting, sector07[/tags]