To Start With Cyberstarter
I recently had the pleasure of participating in a very interesting event.
Cyberstarter is a conference focused on cybersecurity, but in a slightly different format (the conference is different, not the security).
Cyberstarter, in terms of content, focuses on people already working in IT but not necessarily specializing in security.
In short, it's an event for those who want to start but already have some basics.
This sets it apart from events like Confidence, OhMyHack, or even the Mega Sekurak Hacking Party organized by Sekurak, where the level of detail and the presentations themselves definitely require experience in the field. I know this mainly because I also participated in Cyberstarter as a speaker and struggled for a long time with the material to ensure that, on one hand, it wasn't completely hermetic, and on the other hand, it had some technical depth and didn't rely solely on introductions. I talked about Nagios, Centreon, monitoring, and CS time, trying not to stop at diagrams and drawings but also not to delve into the intricate details of building specific commands and monitoring rules. This turned out to be so challenging that I made two attempts at the presentation because the first version was well over an hour long, and only after restructuring and cutting did I manage to fit it into the required forty minutes. Of course, thanks and patience are due to the organizers for their help. But these cuts left me with many notes and ideas for future short blog posts, but more on that at the end.
Because Cyberstarter is organized by Securitum, or more precisely, its media brand - Sekurak. Securitum is very prominent on the Polish security scene and needs no introduction. Recently, they've been in the spotlight mainly due to the release of a two-volume tome on IT security, which in my private collection sits right next to the brick. Securitum is also the organizer of the aforementioned MSHP, as well as many other smaller and larger training sessions. And now, of course, Cyberstarter, and as I write these words, I already know that another such event is coming in May.
What about the event itself? First of all, it's an online event, which of course has its pros and cons. The main downside is the lack of a very important element of networking, and instead of walking around to presentations, we sit in front of a screen. But let's focus on the positives. The first is that you don't have to travel anywhere or meet anyone. You also don't have to walk around to presentations; we have them all right there on the computer screen. As you prefer. This online nature however offers some possibilities that would be harder to achieve live. I'm talking about the simultaneous broadcast of six presentations. Because the conference was divided into six tracks. Mine was the one for admins, and that's the one I mainly followed, although of course, I couldn't resist glancing at the other tracks. And these other tracks were: For Hackers, where I can especially recommend Paweł Maziarz and Gynvael Coldwind. For Developers, where Michał Bentkowski discusses XSS attacks. The one about cyber work, where I can't recommend anything yet because I haven't gotten to that material. Two awareness tracks. One about phishing and disinformation and the other about scams. Both featured excellent presentations, and I especially recommend Rafał Godek, Adam Haertle, and Michał Sajdak.
So what? So out of these 6 tracks, there are 47 presentations. I don't have to watch my own, but I'm still getting questions after it, which, I must admit, makes me very happy and positively motivates me. I'm slowly working through the rest, some I watched live, but I'm watching them again to jot down a few details. In general, it was worth it, both as a participant and as a speaker. Here you can find the official summary from the organizers.
But why am I writing about this? Because Cyberstarter finally pushed me in the direction I've been leaning towards for some time. I'm finally planning to revive this technical blog. I'm already preparing the first, more technical post, which will slightly reference one of the scripts from my presentation. So, I invite you to follow along and join the May edition of CyberStarter.