The Insider Weekly #1 - Ground Zero
I'm dedicating more time to this newsletter to share my ongoing learning and experimentation with you. Join me!
It shall be called ‘Insider Weekly’. And here’s the first batch.
1. Work
My main focus in 2022 has been penetration testing and application security. And I’m finishing off the year with 85 assessments under my hat. It’s been crazy, to say the least. 2023 looks upscalable from this perspective, as more work is on the way, from multiple sources.
My second main focus has been machine learning. And there’s a lot to talk about here. But I’ll be brief. I look forward to exploring the intricacies of large language models (LLMs), like chatGPT. I’ve been reading a few papers and have been documenting myself from multiple sources, so more on this later. At some point, I’ll find the bridge between AI and cybersecurity (a distant future goal of mine).
2. Creative
I’ve been investing a lot of time in my main YouTube channel. Trying to get more content out, with a touch of personal insight. We need more people creating original content.
I’m also investing time in Twitter because most of the cybersecurity and machine learning communities are there. And, imo, it’s not going to move to Mastodon or other similar ‘inventions’ any time soon. Don’t follow the herd, stay with the bird.
On the same note, I have a virtual assistant helping me with stuff. And I’ve got a few other assistants across the world ready and willing for when things are going to get heavier.
3. Unsorted
Grateful before everything.
I bought some MSFT and NET stocks a few days ago. And a few index funds.
I’m 90 km short of breaking my last year’s biking record of 2875 km. 8 days to go, but with the unfriendly weather, it’s gonna be a challenge.
I don’t feel the need to take time off because I enjoy the hell of what I’m doing, but I’m not gonna spend `too` much time online in the next two weeks.
I’m studying application security, math, physics, and chemistry from multiple sources (mostly on my tablet). Reading cybersecurity RFCs has become a thing for me.
Getting into red teaming and blockchain security, one very very small step at a time.
Getting deeper into prompting and prompt engineering for LLMs via learnprompting.org, huggingface, and a few papers. Gonna spend a lot of time on huggingface.
I’m playing a lot with GPT3.5 in the playground, more than I play with ChatGPT.
I moved all my note-taking to Notion, and I started playing with their Notion AI.
I’m considering playing with repl.it. Or subscribing to Copilot. Either one. Probably Copilot.
So much to play with, mon cher!
I’ve been getting some new clients for pentesting lately, from unthinkable sources
I built a chrome extension to summarize the text I highlight on a page (uses AI). It helps me when I want to read stuff faster. I’m trying to optimize it for accuracy.
Been experimenting with one meal a day lately. I’ve done this in the past whenever I needed deep focus. I’ve also upped the frequency of 48h fasts (about 2-3 per month).
I use allinfosecnews.com as my main aggregator for cybersecurity news (additional to Twitter) and I’ll post news pieces with my insights in future iterations of this newsletter.
I started the paid version of this newsletter in which I’ll post more “behind-the-wall” stuff, later on. Maybe I’ll take this newsletter to paid entirely. I’m not looking for thousands of loose subscribers, but more for a handful of close connections. And I’ve already got a few on board. Join us, here.
Enough for now, hear from me next week. Happy Holidays!
Stay tuned: