During my undergrad, I was the vice president of the student cyber security club and helped organize our bi-weekly meetings. Having been apart of organizations with apathetic leadership always fustrated me. So I made sure we had something to do at meetings. I also made sure I had some time in front of everyone so they could listen to me speak, and so I’d get experience in front of others. Digging around, I found the past presentation I created.

You, Me, and the Magic Smoke: Due to training from other work, I’m proficient at reading and troubleshooing electronic block and wiring diagrams. Looking back, this presentation wasn’t informative and me just geeking out. I distintly remember some two folks in the audience who were actual electrical engineers telling me “You presented everything well, but it’s too much for anyone to learn at once”.

Secretly Surf Cyber-space: An overview of the internet and how to anonymously use it. About 1/4 of the audience had tried these methods, 1/2 the audience was familiar with the concepts, and the last 1/4 didn’t know any of this.

You and I and Command Line: During my undergrad I had a X201 Thinkpad as my daily driver. It was durable and portable, but too under powered to run Windows. I went cold turkey with Ubuntu, along with getting familiar with the command line. When classmates would look over my shoulder they’d my set-up and how I used it, so this presentation was to talk through it and why I did what I did.

Lock It Up: During my undergrad, the appeal of physical security as part of the cybersecurity zeitgeist was taking off. Hackers understood that just like software, hardware secuirty manufatuers took shortcuts that could be exploited in trivial ways. One issue I remember when giving this presentation is that the lock picking pictures should’ve been animated. So when they froze mid-presentation (and after waiting an awkward time for them to animate) I went to the end of the presentation where I linked the source site and we watched those instead.

These presentation aren’t anything to brag about. It’s just interesting to look back and reminice. And reading these I learned a bit more about who I was, how I’ve improved, and how I can change going forward.