Category: Uncategorized

  • Why mandatory identification on social media is mostly a terrible idea

    I’m old and a social media junkie. I ran a BBSs in the late 80s, built and ran dozens of community forums and websites since the 90s (some of which are still going strong today), I blogged on Mono before the term blog was coined and live journal existed, I was on Facebook back when…

  • Why Voter-ID in UK elections is mostly a terrible idea

    If you dig into the UK election in-person voting system, you’ll find it’s designed around a brilliantly balanced ideal, making voting as easy as possible whilst ensuring that fraud can not be committed at a scale that will normally make any kind of difference. I’m a hacker by trade, I may work for the good…

  • BSides Leeds Challenge Flag Guide

    One of the many many awesome things @LargeCardinal and co did for BSidesLeeds this year was a challenge to collect as many hidden flags as possible. Sadly nobody reported collecting any flags on the day (probably because there were so many other things for people to do and see) so they decided of offer an…

  • BSides Leeds ESP32 LoRa Badge – Flashing Guide

    Firstly Install the Arduino IDE from https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software Once installed go to Files -> Preferences under “Additional Board Manager URLs” add https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json Then go to Tools -> Board -> Board Manager and search for ESP32. You should have ESP32 by espressif, install this set of boards. You should then be able to go Tools -> Boards…

  • BSides Leeds LoRa Badge Guide – Usage

    This Info is also available online at<insert URL> First get yourself a ESP32 LoRa board (details, including a link to get the next-day via Amazon Prime can be found <link to SBG Engineering Blog for page for Quick Start Guide>) and pop along the the SBG Flashing Station to get BSides Leeds 2019 custom Challenge firmware…

  • BSides Leeds ESP32 LoRa Badge Quick Start Guide

    It’s probably no great surprise that once again the BSides 2018 Badge is also a PCB. However most people don’t get the chance to have fun with their badges until the get home, but as this years badge is all about interaction, SBG have teamed up with BSidesLeeds to help you actually take part on…

  • The Internal Bug Bounty Programme*

    Please see this post before reading, for important caveats about the sources of information used to help construct this post. Introduction One of my favourite Security subjects is Bug Bounty Programmes, mainly because I was lucky enough to start work somewhere big enough to already have an internal programme in place and where I was…

  • An early New Year Resolution

    Previously, I had a job whose Social Media policy pretty much prevented me from talking about Security related stuff on Social Media / Blogs / Cons etc as people might believe it was pertaining to their specific environment and concerns (even if it wasn’t). So I cleared down my blog of anything technical and let…

  • WannaCry – When the press pick the wrong boogeyman and nobody listens

    It was weird watching the events around WannaCry unfold on Friday in the context of my current job role as for the first time since, the ILOVEYOU worm (which turned 17 years old earlier this month) my role meant that I didn’t have any responsibility for any potentially impacted hosts. After a lifetime of working…

  • Pentestit.ru noobs guide

    Pentestit.ru noob guide Whilst I’m a “blue teamer” (I specialise in the defensive side of InfoSec), I do enjoy doing Pentesting challenges both for fun and because “know your enemy” & “always think like an attacker” are invaluable bits of advice for any defender. One of my favourites is Pentestit.ru Labs which closely mimic real environments…