Jack Rhysider - From Odd-jobs to Network Analyst to SOC Architect to... Darknet Diaries!

Getting Into Infosec

With an engineering background, Jack found himself doing odd jobs at first. Looking to get back into tech, he certed up and got a job in the NOC (Network Operation Center) and eventually became a SOC architect building a SOC from scratch. Looking to do something different, he started Dark Net Diaries, and it's been an adventure since! This is Jack Rhysider's origin story.

BIO

Jack Rhysider started his professional career in a NOC. He then became a network security engineer doing a lot of work to harden the network and detect threats in the network. He became a security architect and successfully built a SOC for a MSSP. He's currently the host of the podcast Darknet Diaries, where he interviews hackers or those who've suffered a major attack. The podcast has experienced phenomenal growth, so Jack now works on it full time.

Notes

• A glimpse into the life of a security analyst and a Managed SOC

• Takes about 3-6 months for an analyst to baseline and come up to speed

• His first hack was hacking the Sim City savegame file. Dad was thrilled!

• Several years of blogging his journey in Infosec helped Jack with his communication skills and explaining difficult concepts to people.

Quotes:

• "As a security engineer, I need to know a little bit about everything."

• "I would do things like remove (rm -f /) the whole root directory just to see how many files I could delete before the whole operating system would crash!"

• "Be fearless, grandma!"

• "I think there is a lot of shaming that goes on if people... do security wrong... that kind of makes things stressful."

• "I think what [we], as security people, lack sometimes is good communication."

• "Taking on tasks when nobody asked them to take it on... is amazing!"

• "I would keep corrupting files over and over, but eventually, I figured out which byte in the file was for the amount of money, and I was able to give myself a billion dollars!"

Links:

• Darknet Diaries Podcast
• @JackRhysider
• CFP Time
• Intro Music by Trash80
• Outro Music by Mid-Air Machine

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