This was impulsive...so another newsletter for you?

Character limits on LinkedIn led to an impulsive decision.

Oct 02, 2023

Hi & happy new month!

I didn’t have a YouTube video to post this Monday (I'll post later this week) so I decided just to share the content I’ve been consuming recently and what’s been happening in my life lately. Well….the actual plan was to share this on Linkedin but I exceeded the character limit so now what?

A newsletter.

Yes, those 2 words. The solution to everything. Right? Right???

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is very informal, you’ll find emojis and casual text lingo/abbreviations/mannerisms across this issue…just because 😛.

So, below, I have some content I've consumed recently, musings & life updates I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Learning & Self-Development

🧠 Travis Media - How To Learn ALL These Skills? 3 Practical Steps

Video link:

Travis here, is talking about learning to code and what it takes. He likens it to learning how to play the guitar 🎸 (as a musician myself, this was a perfect illustration) and how it was years ago when folks didn't have much learning technology or musical courses and had to learn how to play by listening and practicing for countless hours.

But guess what, now there are 1000s of Facebook groups and online communities with folks struggling even to understand the basics, why? Well, there are several resources available so, it's harder to choose one and just stick with it. Then beginners overanalyze the basics and actually fail to get started on something. Now relate this to coding, where several resources are out there to get started on but still several people (including myself 😛) struggling to learn how to code.

Well, what's the solution you may ask? Travis gives a simple and straightforward 3 step approach.

1 - pick a course and stick with it
2 - create a project and "jam"!
3 - Practice continuous coding and algorithm challenges.

That's it! Easier said than done but it is that simple. I know this as I've applied it to several other aspects of learning and it works for me. I think I just need to get past my own personally created mental block.

You will be the first to find out as soon as I re-embark on my coding journey!

Technical Studies

🐕 InfoSec for Humans: How To Threat Hunt Like A Pro: The Easy Way

Video link:

First, can we just take a moment to appreciate the production quality of this short & technical video? (I mean it, take a moment!).

Alright, I hope you took that moment. However, as a content creator, I love finding gems like this that combine my passions (Content Creation and Cybersecurity) and execute them brilliantly. Now, this is my second time watching this video. I watched it a couple of months ago but I've recently been revisiting some concepts for better understanding and formulating my approach to it.

Not much to say about this since it's very high level but it gives you a very good & basic overview of threat hunting. Not like idk what threat hunting is but sometimes I get "lost in the sauce" and forget what the heck the whole point of what I'm doing is and videos like this help reset my perspective.

🦮 Archan Choudhury // BlackPerl DFIR: Threat Hunt & Threat Intelligence

Video Link:

Playlist

Can we all agree that some of the best Cybersecurity channels are by far the most underrated? I remember watching Archan years ago when I first started my Cybersecurity career as an intern and just binging on some of his videos. Well, here I am years later, doing the same thing 😂.

Archan's Threat Hunt & Threat Intelligence series is nicely executed and takes you through various Threat Hunting Tutorials. What I love about this playlist is Archan’s approach to teaching it. As an educator, I appreciate educators who take their time to break down concepts into very digestible information and Archan does this very well with various topics and practical demonstrations.

As a follow-up to InfoSec for Humans’ How To Threat Hunt Like A Pro: The Easy Way video, I took on, once again, binge-watching Archan’s videos on Threat Hunting as a result of some concepts I’ve been recently re-learning, especially with Windows Telemetry. I also wanted to jump into this course's Jupyter Notebooks section as I’ve been looking to understand better how to use Jupyter Notebooks. I ultimately decided against that by watching the entire series leading up to the Jupyter Notebooks section.

So far it’s been a tremendous re-learning experience, so shout out to Archan!

💭Certified Cyber Defenders: Memory Forensics

As some of you who follow me on other platforms or are subscribed to my YouTube might know, I’ve been going through this course (currently 95% done). RN, I’m working on the Memory Forensics labs - to be finished this week - and it’s been cool diving back into Memory forensics after over a year of not doing anything remotely close to it.

I plan to finish this course and tackle the exam this month so stay tuned for that🤞🏽.

Engineering Musings

🔗 Detecting Links, Not Chains

Another thing that's been dancing around 🕺🏾 in my mind recently regarding threat detection is the concept of Detecting Links, Not Chains.

It's been coming back to me repeatedly as I’ve been digging deeper into various threat detection blogs, articles, videos, podcasts & courses I've been consuming recently.

I’m not quite sure where the original idea came from 🤔 as it’s been stated by multiple sources I’ve come by but as simple as it sounds, I’ve found that it can be quite easy to get wrong.

See, the thing is as individual Cybersecurity practitioners, whether we acknowledge it or not, there are external behavioral factors that might affect your approach to security - whatever that might look like for you.

As someone who is very structured and detail-oriented, you’d think a concept as simple as that would be applicable? Nope🫠. I have another, dominant side that cares way more about ALL the details - some might even call it overthinking.

Nonetheless, I might care too much about “everything” too much to the point where I forget about the individual “small things” that make the single “everything”.

Coming back full circle to the concept of “Detecting links, Not chains”, I sometimes fall into the trap of zooming far out into the chain and neglecting the links that make the chain. However, given that this concept has circulated in my mind recently and further percolated into my subconscious, I can apply it in my day-to-day approach to Detection Engineering.

Health & Fitness

🏋🏽‍♀️ Road to 180 LBS

I’ve been on a recent bulking journey after an extreme cut. I started from < 160 lbs about 4 weeks ago and as of today I’m at 167.4 lbs. I’ve been enjoying this process as it’s my second bulk and this time I feel like I’m doing it better. I’ve also been able to lift heavier as I’ve been progressively overloading.

Also, for the first time, I have very “big” and well-defined quads. This is of course a result of consistency (2 years+ of working out), more gym experience, and of course proper dieting but it still feels unreal to me because my quads have just never seemed to want to respond to any stimuli 😂.

The most recent progress picture is below (Sept 23rd).

🤍 Life

🇺🇸 Certified American

I am legitimately a certified American now! As in a United States Citizen!

The last 7 years have been an incredible journey. Immigrating from Nigeria to the US, was a completely foreign land to me then. However, God has been beyond faithful and brought me this far.

Although Nigeria will always be my motherland, I’m proud to call myself an American.

This land has been good to me and brought me so many opportunities I would have never thought of.

The journey’s only beginning and the future has never looked brighter✨.

Books

🧍🏾‍♂️ Book #14 - David Deida: The Way of The Superior Man

For the last 2 years, I’ve made it a point of duty to read at least 1 book a month and this is my #14 for this year! I read this book first in November 2022 and I’ve been re-reading it since mid-September after finishing “Relentless by Tim Grover”. Life’s been a lot more exciting and dynamic lately as a young man dealing with work, family, faith, content, business, and recently, a new romantic relationship.

I’ve been doing a lot of “searching”, if I may, especially being a 21-year-old immigrant-black man living at the current level & stage of life I’m finding myself in. There aren’t many people I know who are like me so it’s hard to relate, ask for help or even find sound advice out there (social media is not even remotely an option for advice about living life as a man - at least not the kinda man I wanna be 🚫). So I resort to close & trusted friends/mentors/family and books.

This book in a very weird but cohesive manner comes together to be a guide for mastering the challenges of women, work & sexual desires. Some of the ideas in the 51 chapters of this book are very much applicable to my work, family & relationships (platonic & romantic) and I’ve been trying to apply them wherever possible.

I always gladly consume books for self-development purposes but, as a man of faith in Jesus Christ, I temper what worldly knowledge I acquire against my religious ideologies to balance out how I live my life. So, as much as the concepts & guides provided in the book are great, I choose what I apply and not everything that applies to me.