The Bastard Academic

Well, well, isn't this one for the books: the NSA have released GHIDRA, their reverse engineering tool. Yes, you read that correctly, the NSA have released something. Not The Shadow Brokers or any other APT, it hasn't been leaked or nabbed and let into the wild, this is a deliberate sharing of technology by the Puzzle Palace. Not what you'd expect, is it? Announced at this years RSA conference (already controversial this year as Adi Shamir, the 'S' in RSA, was unable to obtain a visa to attend), this reverse engineering tool seems primed to shake things up a bit, as many RE tools cost a fair bit of money. It also seems to be free of backdoors, and although one bug has been found , it can be remedied was reasonable ease. I've not really done much RE myself, but with a powerful, military-grade tool such as this, it might be a whole lot easier to get into. I'll let you know more when I've had a chance to play around with it. If you are interested...

Today, I want to look at soft skills; more precisely, one soft skill in particular, namely problem solving. Yes, that old chestnut, the one everyone seems to need to put on their CV, from janitorial staff and burger flippers to IT practitioners of all flavours. But why am I writing about it now? Because it’s not a very well understood skill, and it is only half of what a CyberSec pro needs. Confused? I’ll explain. As I’ve mentioned previously, one way for CyberSec personnel to test themselves and keep their skill sharp, while learning or while actively engaged in a position, is wargames (you can find a good list of them here ). Hack boxes, CTF’s (Capture the Flag) and so on are a great way to introduce you into thinking about the issue faced and the problems that need solving in context. It helps build your problem-solving skills by presenting you with common, and not so common, challenges, which you must overcome with your wits and technical know-how. Problem solving as we ...