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I participated in at least six cybersecurity competitions during my time as an ISIN student at Ferris State University. Now that my degree is finished, I thought it would be a good idea to record what I remember from the experiences. Apart from being a healthy thing to do, reflection is also a core analyst skill. Knowing how best to “make it mean something” after you finish a competition, certification, or other cyber engagement will give perspective to your experiences. Recording what happened or creating something like a lessons learned writeup can also benefit your peers and future analyst collaborators, so I feel grateful that the ISIN program reinforced this habit. read more...

I found yolk when searching for an easy way to manage and template my configuration files. I had been using GNU Stow beforehand, but it lacks a convenient templating method. Apart from the yolk documentation itself, I couldn’t find many resources about how to use it. I also haven’t seen it mentioned in many online discussions or lists of similar tools. This is a quickstart guide for replicating my yolk setup and getting started with configuration templating. If you’re interested, you can read about how I previously managed configuration files with Stow. Otherwise, skip straight to seeing how I use yolk. read more...

🔍 Important This post is part of a series. Also see part 1. Second Access Point Because the first access point I deployed has a weaker signal than the Wi-Fi router it replaced, I need to deploy another access point to cover the basement. No new cables are getting installed - I’m just adding another access point along the path that already exists. See the diagram below for a better idea of what I’m talking about. read more...

🔍 Important This post is part of a series. Also see part 2. Background & Goals I’ve been wanting to upgrade my home network for a long time. I’m severely limited in the types of cyber projects that I can engage with until I address this, so I thought that a home network upgrade had better be the first thing I complete after graduating. The existing setup is lacking in several areas: read more...