This page is a collection of write-ups for the personal and learning projects I’ve worked on and am currently working on.

• Katie Nickels’ CTI Self-Study Plan
  A colleague sent me this study plan, and I was so excited to dive in! Here’s Katie’s intro to her plan: There are many ways to learn. While some people prefer to have a live instructor in a course, others are great at doing self-study. I teach SANS FOR578: Cyber Threat Intelligence, which is a great…
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  GSEC Exam Prep
  A few notes before I get started: GIAC Exams are open book. “Easy!” you may think. Nope, not easy! There are two factors at play here. One is time, and the other is the amount of content covered. The GSEC exam is 180 questions with a 5 hour time limit. That’s roughly a minute and…
• Verifying the Checksum
  If you download a Linux distribution or an executable file, you may see a recommendation to verify the checksum before running or installing your file. I have to be honest, the first few times I saw this recommendation it was something I didn’t understand, so I completely blew it off. (Shhh…) In my defense, I…
• Holiday Hack Write-up
  I finally finished my write-up for the SANS Holiday Hack 2020. I learned a lot through the process of writing this up! If you’re interested, check out my full write up on GitHub. Here are my key takeaways though, pulled straight from my write-up: Personal Takeaways Favorites These are my favorite challenges and experiences of…
• NAS time!
  I’ve wanted to set up my own Network Attached Storage for quite a while now. Well, I found a sweet deal on this 5-bay NAS on Prime Day on October, and I finally sat down and got it up and running this week! I put two 4T WD Red drives in it (also on sale…
• SANS Holiday Hack Challenge & KringleCon3
  Where has this been all my life?! For real though. KringleCon3 and the Holiday Hack Challenge, I can’t even tell you how awesome. It’s the perfect combination of geeking out, having fun, listening to a great soundtrack, watching short talks to give me tips, stalking discord, taking notes, and learning by doing. I didn’t get…
• CompTIA Security+ Studies
  Time to complete the trifecta! I started studying for this one as soon as the holidays were over, and I’m excited to really dig in. Here’s are the resources I’m planning on using: CompTIA exam objectives – this is a must for any CompTIA exam, they’re so detailed! CompTIA Security+ Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-501…
• Capture the Flag Noob
  I’ve been seeing teasers about SANS Community CTF for a while, and the idea of a free CTF is intriguing. I have loved the tiny exposure I’ve had to Hack the Box, but really besides that this is all new to me. They had a free community CTF in October, but I chickened out on…
• CompTIA Network+ Studies
  Getting ready for the Network+ exam next! I have to say, I’m glad that I started with A+. I feel like it was broad and foundational, making it easier to jump in to the more specialized network topics. Here are the study resources I’m using: Professor Messer‘s N10-007 Network+ Training Videos on YouTube CompTIA Network+…
• Google App Scripts
  Have you ever used Macros or Scripts in Microsoft Excel? I recently learned there is similar functionality in Google Apps, using Google App Scripts. I recently had someone tell me she wanted to populate a Google Doc template with the submission from a Google Form, using an Add-on. However, she was restricted from installing Add-ons…