About the Author: Dave Bell

Hello, I’m Dave. From my LinkedIn bio: I am a proven senior cyber security leader with extensive experience leading, managing, planning and executing Red Team and other cyber operations in multiple industries and disciplines across the globe. I have broad experience in both the Public and Private sectors and have been recognized for my expertise in numerous ways–most recently by being featured in the “Tribe of Hackers: Red Team Edition” book published by Wiley.

Red Team isn’t all shells and champagne. It’s long hours of analysis looking for that *one* flaw that gives you the access you need to move toward your objective. You’ll even obsess in your sleep, and the answer will hit you in the shower. Then, repeat!
— Dave Bell (@operant) May 24, 2019

Infosec Career Development

Change is a Constant Recently I’ve been asked for various forms of career advice, from both newcomers and industry veterans alike. I’ve been asked for help with everything from reviewing resumes, to general advice on possible employer changes and even major career changes. These requests have been increasing, but the only (somewhat) common denominator so far seems to be the Pandemic. Normally there is an uptick in people making career moves in January and February, but perhaps people are getting a head start.

How to Work Asynchronously With Global Teams

Discussion While we’re all adjusting to the suddenly new normal of working from home, there’s another challenge isn’t often discussed: asynchronous remote work. The Team I’m currently with is global, including folks in the US, Europe, and Australia. Luckily for me, my teammates figured out how to tackle this long before I showed up. Once I understood the rhythms and processes, things continued to run like a well-oiled hacking machine. We’re a Red Team, but there’s nothing really unique about the tools or processes we use…this could work for any asynchronous team.

Leading in a Crisis

Let’s talk leadership First, let’s get this out of the way: I’m not telling anyone how to lead. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned after so many years with Red Teams, it’s that no two environments or situations are the same. Leadership isn’t easy, and what works in one situation may backfire spectacularly in another. This effect is dramatically amplified during a crisis. I’m writing this as we’re in the early stages of grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic here in the US.

How to Sound Like a Podcaster on Your Next Call

I covered video in a previous post (Chroma Keying for Skype in MacOS), so I thought I would follow that up with a post on audio. Audio quality can make, or break, any call, video, or stream. Think about the last time you tried to watch an interesting looking video on Youtube, only to turn it off due to horrible sound. Or the last time you had a call where you wondered if that one person (you know the one) was actually drowning.

Using Custom Images With AWS Amplify

Bloated Whale One thing that I love about Hugo, is that it’s a self-contained go binary. This means it’s really easy to run a local version of my site temporarily as I’m writing content or tweaking the design. I was doing just that the other evening, when I noticed that one page didn’t look the same locally as it did “live.” Investigating this, I noticed that I was running a different version locally than I was on AWS.

So You're Going to Manage Remotely

Good Point A couple of days after posting my experiences working remotely, I saw a tweet from @jack_daniel that made an excellent point: .twitter-tweet { font: 14px/1.45 -apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; color: #555; } All kinds of advice for new remote workers, I haven't seen any for managers of remote workers, and they're often why remote work fails. — Jack Daniel (@jack_daniel) March 8, 2020 As it turns out, I have also been managing remotely over the last four years, and have learned some things along the way.

Tribe of Hackers Red Team: Tribal Knowledge from the Best in Offensive Cybersecurity

Last year I had the honor of being asked to contribute to the “Tribe of Hackers Red Team: Tribal Knowledge from the Best in Offensive Cybersecurity” book by Marcus J. Carey and Jennifer Jin. They were passed my contact info by my colleagues leading other large internal corporate Red Teams, and I’ll admit I was blown away. They were on a tight deadline at the time, and wanted my input quickly.

So You're Going to Work Remotely

After about five years of working remotely full time, I’ve learned a few things, and would like to share them with the community. As the COVID-19 virus begins to spread through communities in the US, many companies are experimenting with keeping a large portion of their workforce home, at least temporarily. This means that many more people will get the opportunity to try out this “work from home gig,” and will likely experience a bit of a learning curve.

Deploying Hugo on AWS Amplify

Let’s start writing (again) Like many people, I ran a little WordPress-based blog about 13 or 14 years ago(!!). This was before social media really started, and blogging was what the cool kids were doing. And like many people, I shut it down after a few years when social media (Facebook at the time) started to take off and blogging no longer made sense. I don’t remember where I hosted my blog, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was parked on one of my old homemade servers.

Chroma Keying for Skype on MacOS

Image © 2021 Dave Bell Chroma what? I’ve been using a “green screen” (chroma key) in my Skype for Business calls for a few months now, and I’m frequently asked how I set it up. This post will give you a rough idea of why I’m using a green screen, and how to set up your own if you so choose. Here’s an idea what the end result looks like:

About

A little about myself Hello, I’m Dave Bell, and I go by @operant on twitter (hence the site name). I am a proven senior cyber security leader with extensive experience leading, managing, planning and executing Red Team and other cyber operations in multiple industries and disciplines across the globe. I have broad experience in both the Public and Private sectors and have been recognized for my expertise in numerous ways–most recently by being featured in the “Tribe of Hackers: Red Team Edition” book published by Wiley.

My First Post

Hello World! This is my first post on the hugo platform. Many more to come…?

About the Author: Dave Bell

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