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Abstract

May</li><li>preparing an application for a coaching certification</li></ul>All of these tasks were stimulated by the productivity urge.I was overloading myself. Also, I noted with more than a hint of regret that many of these quests to be productive were putting undue pressure on others to be productive too.It was time to be less productive.I set about culling my list.<h1 id="47d5">Forgiveness</h1>Let’s be real for a second. There’s a pandemic out there. We’re all in quarantine. A lot of people have lost their jobs and even those of us lucky to still be working have all but lost the structure to our days and weeks.News cycles are punishing. Everything takes more effort. Energy levels are low. Mood can be low too. It is not a time to overload: it is a time for self-care.That can actually mean doing less. And that is ok.I began cancelling things. I cancelled the webinar on remote working. My friend who was organising it with me immediately said thank you.I postponed the second work-related webinar. Two work colleagues agreed it was a good idea.Launching the new Medium Publication is still an ambition, but I am taking my foot off the gas with that. It can happen later in the year. I forgive myself.I am also taking the pressure off myself to write at all. I still get huge enjoyment out of writing for Serious Scrum, but my inspiration is lower, and that is ok: it always ebbed and flowed. I forgive myself for my lower rate of publication.

Illumination is a new project for me. I have no idea how much I will write here and, you know what, I forgive myself for that uncertainty as well.Writing this feels confessional and unusual for me. It is not how I normally write. But it feels good. As I write, I forgive myself for over-sharing.I hope others will recognise something in my story and perhaps begin to forgive themselves for doing less too.<h1 id="87bd">Distraction</h1>It’s probably fair to point out: I didn’t cancel everything.The meet-up in May was a request from a friend and the topic is one I’ve written ab

Options

out already, so I’m going to continue with that. My friend did ask me this weekend if I was still ok to do it, and I had an opportunity to say no. For once, I didn’t automatically dismiss the idea of saying no. I forgive myself for thinking about saying no.Also, I continue to be inspired to apply for a coaching certification. This is a long-term ambition of mine, and there is no time-sensitivity to the application process. I choose to take that pressure off myself now, and I also choose to forgive myself for taking my own sweet time with it.I allow myself these distractions because they are meaningful to me.Also, without the overload of other tasks, I can do these at a pace that makes more sense to me.<figure id="20f5"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*IiUm2PXzVt6r4zhg"><figcaption>Flight Safety Instructions</figcaption></figure><h1 id="e2b3">Moving forward, one step at a time</h1>You do not have to be productive.You need to care for yourself so that you can care for others. Watch out for the to-do list and that feeling of being a little overwhelmed. It can creep up on you.Forgive yourself for taking on less. It’s ok.Forgive yourself for your low energy. It’s ok.Forgive yourself for your low mood or for those days when you don’t want to do anything at all.It’s ok to not be ok.Flight safety instructions tell us:<blockquote id="a104">“If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person.” (Source: <a href="https://activerain.com/blogsview/2535480/put-your-own-oxygen-mask-on-first">Active Rain</a>)</blockquote>Self-care means that, rather than feeling pressured to be more productive, you might need to go out for a walk instead.By taking on less and looking after yourself, you will put your figurative oxygen mask on. This will help you to breathe better.First things first. Breathe.If you can, cancel the things you don’t need to do right away.It’s ok. You can forgive yourself.</article></body>

Welcome to Bugs that Bite

Introducing a new blog from Teri Radichel

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⚙️ Check out my series on Automating Cybersecurity Metrics | Code.

🔒 Related Stories: Bugs | AWS Security | Secure Code

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Have you ever gotten stuck for way too long on an error message that should have been a simple fix? Do you fix and error and forget what you did to fix it the next time you hit the error? Do you ever spend weeks trying to convince a company that there is a bug in their product? Do you find that some error messages do not correctly describe the problem? Are some UI’s confusing? Is performance problematic with some functionality of certain applications? That’s what this blog is all about.

I rarely pay for support on cloud platforms because, basically, I feel like I’m paying to provide quality assurance. When the documentation is clear and the error messages are even mildly useful I’ll typically figure out the problem faster myself than through customer support. When I do find a problem I can’t fix, it’s often a bug or the service is down. Do I have to pay to report bugs and tell a company their service is down? That doesn’t seem fair.

I will sometimes go around in circles for ages with support teams such as I did trying to resolve some problems with Microsoft Azure recently. I decided to just start writing this blog with the error messages I hit and how to fix them. Maybe this will get to the right people to fix the problems faster than going through a support team that doesn’t always have the time or training to adequately troubleshoot a problem.

Hopefully it helps both people who are hitting the error messages, and the people that are trying to fix them and make their products better. And that usually doesn’t happen by submitting support tickets, unfortunately, or at least not very fast. I recently spent 4 weeks trying to convince an Azure support engineer to escalate a problem that turned out to be an Azure bug, which they said they fixed, but by the time they fixed it, my 6 week Azure class was over and I had to move on so I didn’t test it.

The problem is that I’m not getting paid to report and verify fixes for all these bugs. At least when companies pay a security bug bounty you have a shot at getting paid. I’d rather spend my time on that but I’ve been too busy with cloud and application pentesting to date to have time for bug bounties. I hope to find time someday. I’m working on some automation that might help. :)

Although I write a lot about cybersecurity, security assessments, and penetration testing this blog isn’t all about security. It’s just about error messages I hit and how to fix them. Related that that is poor performance and confusing UI design.

If you want to learn how to secure your systems and code, follow my other blog, Cloud Security:

Cloud Security

Cybersecurity in a Cloudy World

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If you want to write better error messages and improve error handling check out my post on Thoughtful Error Handling:

Thoughtful Error Handling

Your error handler is one of your most important security defenses

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For more information about security bugs, otherwise know as CVEs, and a subcategory called Zero Days check out CVEs: Security Bugs that Bite:

CVEs: Security Bugs that Bite

What is a CVE and why is it important? Cybersecurity for Executives.

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That’s part of my book linked at the bottom of this blog post which covers cybersecurity fundamentals at an executive level.

If you want to improve testing your code and preventing error messages in general you can read this post on Better testing for better outcomes:

Better testing for better outcomes

Infrastructure, disaster recovery, product, and penetration testing

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For more on penetration testing or security testing, check out this post on Getting value from security testing:

Getting value from security testing

What did you do with that penetration test, audit, assessment, or bug bounty report?

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If an article in this blog helped you or you had the same problem, please clap!

That’s it for now!

Follow for updates.

About Teri Radichel:
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⭐️ Author: Cybersecurity Books
⭐️ Presentations: Presentations by Teri Radichel
⭐️ Recognition: SANS Award, AWS Security Hero, IANS Faculty
⭐️ Certifications: SANS ~ GSE 240
⭐️ Education: BA Business, Master of Software Engineering, Master of Infosec
⭐️ Company: Penetration Tests, Assessments, Phone Consulting ~ 2nd Sight Lab

Need Help With Cybersecurity, Cloud, or Application Security?
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