Going to the Dark Side

If you’re new to my blog Dark Roast Security, check out my article on why I started this blog and then come on back here.

As you all know, I’m a few years into my career and am looking to continue learning and further develop my “brand”. I’ve always been a big crime show fan, my favorite show being Criminal Minds (which sadly came to an end this year). If you know the show, then you know the crazy intelligence analyst, Penelope Garcia, my girl!

Penelope was a black hat, turned white hat, hacker. Her backstory is one that I’m sure has happened in the real world: She was on the FBI’s list of the most dangerous hackers in the world, and they convinced her to come on board and use her skills to help solve crimes. Throughout the entire show, 15 seasons, she worked with the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) as an analyst and leveraged different hacking techniques, mostly OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence), to catch serial killers.

When I first got into the IT industry, my manager at the time was also a fan of Criminal Minds, so we would occasionally talk about the latest episode. He was the one that first said, “You are going to be like Penelope Garcia”, and since then I have been like wow, goals! Penelope is a strong women character in the show and I have idolized her abilities since day one. So what better time to start learning ethical hacking than now, when I am looking for something new and exciting to do?

I’m currently a Blue Teamer and have a lot of great experience in Security Operations but have recently been inspired to branch out a bit. There is so much I still don’t know, and I want to build out my technical skills to have a more well-rounded skillset and hopefully set myself apart from others.

Since I’m embarking on this new self-taught journey, I decided it would be a perfect writing opportunity as well! I’ve created a new section of my blog, the Dark Side, which I will be using to share my progress as I dive into the Red Teaming world. Follow me on Dark Roast Security to stay up to date on this new series of articles!

And for the record, I’m not really going to the dark side of the hacking world, the title just fits my Dark Roast theme so I couldn’t help it.