👋 This Week’s Check-In

I hope your week is going smoothly! I have about one more day of PTO until I go back to work, and when I go back I’ll be hitting the ground running with a new project that I’ve been asked to take on. I’m actually very excited because it’s a new area of cyber for me that I’ll get to gain experience in.

When I started at my job, I told my manager to not expect to hear me say ‘no’ to anything. And that has lived-up to be a very true statement thus far. In the 8 months now working at my company, I don’t believe I have said ‘no’ to any ask of me. I’m super eager to learn and grow as much as I can.

I tell my boyfriend all the time that my hope for myself and my career is to have really potent years. I want to feel like each day is really intentional and purposeful. I want to learn a lot and hopefully find my specialization or specializations as quickly.

Now that I am back in school, I’m learning areas of cybersecurity that I don’t necessarily do at work, and that is an aspect of school that I find extremely beneficial. School is great for creativity and exploration, and of course discipline.

I aspire to become an SME in cyber. Subject-matter-expert.

📚 Learning Corner

This Week in School

Getting Hands-On with Digital Forensics Tools

Digital Forensics is such an interesting topic. I’m still in the beginning phases of learning about the field, things like chain of custory, Daubert Standard, etc., but I’d like to get exploring more into using Autopsy, FTK Imager, and other tools to practice. Have you tried any of these tools, yet? Let me know in the comments!

If you're looking to dive deeper into practical digital forensics, you're in for an exciting journey! Autopsy and FTK Imager are excellent starting points, and there are several ways to begin practicing safely.

Setting Up Your Practice Environment

Before jumping into real cases, consider creating a controlled lab environment. You can use virtual machines with deliberately created test data, or download practice disk images from educational resources like the Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS) or the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This lets you experiment without any legal or ethical concerns.

More Fun with Digital Forensics

While those are fantastic tools to practice on, the digital forensics toolkit is vast. You might also explore Volatility for memory analysis, Wireshark for network forensics, or even command-line tools like dd and strings. Each tool serves different purposes in the investigation process.

Building Your Skills Progressively

Start with basic tasks like creating disk images, then move to file recovery, timeline analysis, and artifact examination. Many practitioners recommend following structured learning paths through platforms like SANS or obtaining hands-on experience through Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions focused on forensics challenges.

💻 Tech Discoveries

AT&T ActiveArmor - My Latest Security Experiment

So I recently activated AT&T ActiveArmor on my phone plan, and I'm honestly pretty curious to see how well it works in practice! For those who haven't heard of it, it's AT&T's built-in security suite that's supposed to block spam calls, malicious websites, and even some malware.

What caught my attention is that it works at the network level - meaning the filtering happens before stuff even reaches your phone. They're essentially using their position as your carrier to create a security layer, which is actually a pretty interesting approach when you think about it.

The spam call blocking has been surprisingly effective so far. I used to get maybe 3-4 robocalls a day, and I've noticed a definite drop since turning it on. The web protection is harder to test obviously (since you don't see the bad stuff it blocks), but I appreciate that it doesn't require installing yet another app on my phone.

I'm curious about the privacy implications though - they're obviously analyzing my web traffic to some degree to provide this protection. It's one of those trade-offs where you're trusting your carrier with more visibility into your online activity in exchange for security benefits.

Has anyone else tried carrier-level security features like this? I'm genuinely interested to see how this plays out over the next few months. It feels like we're seeing more of these "security as a service" offerings built into services we already use, rather than standalone products.

Always fun to be a guinea pig for new tech! I'll definitely report back on how well it actually works.

🔒 Security Corner

This Week's Security Focus

I've been diving into password security lately, and honestly, I'm kind of amazed by how sophisticated password managers have become. Like, we all know we should use them, but I had no idea how much cool tech is actually happening behind the scenes.

Here's something that blew my mind: most password managers don't actually store your master password anywhere. Instead, they use something called "key derivation" where your password gets mathematically transformed into an encryption key that unlocks your vault. So even if the company gets breached (looking at you, LastPass), your actual master password isn't sitting in some database waiting to be stolen. Pretty clever, right?

What's even cooler is that the best ones use "zero-knowledge architecture" - meaning the company literally cannot see your passwords even if they wanted to. Your data gets encrypted on your device before it ever leaves, so all they're storing is essentially gibberish without your master key.

I've been testing out a few different options lately. Bitwarden is fantastic and has a really generous free tier. 1Password has this amazing feature called "Travel Mode" where you can temporarily hide sensitive vaults when crossing borders. And honestly? Apple's built-in Keychain is actually pretty solid if you're deep in the Apple ecosystem - it syncs seamlessly across devices and has gotten way more robust over the years.

I'm completely unaffiliated with any of these companies, just sharing because I find this stuff genuinely fascinating. It's one of those areas where good security practices actually make your life easier once you get the hang of it.

The more I learn about cybersecurity, the more I realize how much interesting engineering goes into protecting the stuff we use every day. These little details are exactly why I love this field so much!

✨ Life Stuff

Getting Your Life Together: Time Management Made Simple

Life throws everything at you at once, but the secret isn't doing more – it's organizing what you're already doing better.

Time Blocking

Instead of endless to-do lists, assign specific time slots to your tasks. This forces you to be realistic about how long things take and prevents that overwhelming feeling of infinite tasks with no clear priorities.

My Favorite Tools Lately

Notion is like having a digital brain. Create a simple dashboard that shows your projects, deadlines, and goals in one place. Link different areas of your life together so nothing falls through the cracks.

LifeAt gamifies productivity by creating virtual workspaces where you can focus alongside others. The ambient environments and gentle accountability features help maintain momentum without pressure.

Keep It Simple

The best system is the one you'll actually use. Start with a weekly planning ritual where you review your calendar and priorities. Capture tasks as they come up, organize them in a way that makes sense to you, and regularly reflect on what's working.

✌️ Until Next Week

Thanks for reading! I hope these tips help you feel a little more in control of your time and maybe a little less overwhelmed by everything on your plate. Organization isn't about being perfect – it's about finding what works for you and sticking with it.

If you’re new here …

Hi! 👋 I’m Jessica. I began studying cybersecurity in 2021 when I decided it was time to give my kids and myself a better life than we were living. I quickly became obsessed with cyber and fast forward to now, I hold numerous industry certifications, work as a Security Operations Analyst and am pursuing my Master’s in Cyber Defense.

Thank you for being here! 🥲