https://www.cynicalsignals.com/ Recent content on CynicalSignals Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/802.xp-badge-grrcon-2025/ Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/802.xp-badge-grrcon-2025/ Your quest Explore the conference and downtown Grand Rapids to “defeat” as many WiFi networks as you can to reach level 16 before you die! How it works Your badge includes stats for Health (H), Experience Points (X) and Level (L). Earn experience and gain health for each new network you find. The less secure the network, the more experience awarded You slowly lose health over time. If you go too long without finding a new network you die! https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cura-usb-privileges-on-debian/ Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cura-usb-privileges-on-debian/ Using Cura on Debian (Ubuntu/Mint/etc.) for your 3D printer but the software isn’t detecting your printer connected via USB? You might find other resources online stating to run Cura as sudo… this will work but it’s not a good habit to be in. The proper way to fix this issue is to add your current user to the dialout group in order to communicate with a serial device over USB. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/ploopy-adept-trackball-impressions/ Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/ploopy-adept-trackball-impressions/ I recently came across Ploopy, a small company making open-source peripherals. They design mice, trackballs and even headphones. I was in the market for purchasing a trackball to reduce wrist and hand pains I was experiencing from using a mouse for up to 12 hours a day. The Adept trackball caught my attention due to its layout and aesthetics, and I like supporting independent companies making open-source things. Ploopy did not ask me to write this or compensate me in any way. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-8/ Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-8/ The following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Fixed The following broken feeds were restored Morphisec Sophos News (formerly Naked Security) TrustedSec Metacurity (moved to Category only due to posts being put behind a paywall) Defender for Cloud Apps (Community) Defender for Endpoint (Community) Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (Vendor Blog) Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Vendor Blog) Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity (Vendor Blog) As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/browser-tabs-2024/ Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/browser-tabs-2024/ I have a bad habit of using browser tabs on my phone as a “read later” list – things that interest me that I plan to circle back on at a later date. Rarely do I find myself going back through all of them, so in order to do some housekeeping I’ve converted my open tabs into a (roughly) categorized list and figured it wouldn’t hurt to make it public. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-7/ Sun, 26 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-7/ The following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visibility URL Phronix Homelab Category https://www.phoronix.com/ DistroWatch.com Homelab Category https://distrowatch.com/ Fixed Renamed the Self-Hosting category to Homelab As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/new-year-new-blog/ Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/new-year-new-blog/ This blog has had many forms over the last couple of years. I love trying out new technology and platforms but I find myself always coming back to Hugo. In 2024, this blog was hosted and published via ghost which is a fantastic platform but didn’t quite fit the bill for what I wanted. You can self-host or pay ghost to host your blog for you, each come with pros & cons. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/building-an-unofficial-badge-for-grrcon-2024/ Wed, 02 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/building-an-unofficial-badge-for-grrcon-2024/ Overview If you want to skip the rambling and see the list of components, you can jump down to them here. This year I decided to build interactive badges for roughly the roughly 30 friends I knew who were attending GrrCon, Grand Rapids, MI’s premiere cybersecurity conference. The behavior of the badge was to animate a pixel on an 8x8 LED matrix. When other badges were in proximity, that pixel would multiply based on the number of other badges using WiFi to see each other. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-6/ Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-6/ The following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visibility URL Selfh.st - This Week in Self-Hosted Homelab Category https://selfh.st/ As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/getting-a-novatel-usb551l-working-in-linux-by-using-windows/ Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/getting-a-novatel-usb551l-working-in-linux-by-using-windows/ Photo by Clockwork Tech LLC I recently received my ClockworkPi uConsole. It’s a great Raspberry Pi-based console with tons of hackability and customization. When I originally ordered it several months ago, I foolishly did not pay the up-charge to get it with the included 4G modem module. Since the device is so portable, I regretted not having the option to use 4G so I set out to find the cheapest USB modem I could find. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/building-a-retro-lan-party-in-2024/ Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/building-a-retro-lan-party-in-2024/ I recently put together a small LAN party reminiscent of the late 90’s/early 00’s experience I had growing up and gaming with friends in my parent’s basement. There’s something about everyone at their own computer, playing games against each other that online or even split-screen multiplayer doesn’t quite capture. I wanted it to outlive just a single event and be something that can be transported to other events or used to entertain friends at home. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-5/ Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-5/ An upgrade to FreshRSS was successful. The following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visbility URL Zack Whittaker’s This Week in SecuritySecurity News Main Feed https://this.weekinsecurity.com/ Fixed Name Category Visbility URL Cofense Moved to Vendor Blogs Main Feed (for now) https://cofense.com/blog As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/please-stop-piping-urls-to-shells/ Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/please-stop-piping-urls-to-shells/ I buy too many domains each year and occasionally I use them for something… purposeful (as long as you consider my personal pet peeves purposeful). Check out my latest spite-site here: https://stoppip.ing/ https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-4/ Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-4/ The following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visibility URL Entra News Vendor Blogs Main Feed https://entra.news/ As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-3/ Tue, 12 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-3/ The following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visibility URL Safe Not Scammed Security News Main Feed https://safenotscammed.com/ Digital Forensics Now Good People Main Feed https://digitalforensicsnow.buzzsprout.com/ As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-2/ Mon, 25 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-2/ This weekend the following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visibility URL MalwareTech Good People Main Feed https://malwaretech.com/ ANY.RUN Vendor Blogs Category Only https://any.run/cybersecurity-blog/ Fixed BankInfoSecurity is now visible in its category only. As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-1/ Sun, 17 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/intel-update-1/ This weekend the following feed updates were made to https://intel.cynicalsignals.com Added Name Category Visibility URL Splunk Vendor Blogs Category Only https://www.splunk.com/blog/feed/ MITRE ATT&CK Vendor Blogs Main Feed https://medium.com/feed/mitre-attack Just Security Security News Main Feed https://www.justsecurity.org/tag/cybersecurity/feed/ Securelist Threat Research Main Feed https://securelist.com/feed/ Cyber Defence Analysis for Blue & Purple Teams Security News Main Feed https://bluepurple.binaryfirefly.com/feed Fixed /r/Cybersecurity now points to old.reddit.com for better reading. As always, if you have any suggestions please reach out using any of the contact methods at the bottom of this page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/introducing-cynical-intel/ Sun, 10 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/introducing-cynical-intel/ You can check it out here: https://intel.cynicalsignals.com When I ditched Twitter a few years ago, I found it had gotten less convenient staying up to date on everything going on in the world of Cyber Security. I had that finely tuned feed of trusted sources I could rely upon, and occasionally “the algorithm” would bring new sources into my circle. I still get that on Mastodon to a certain extent (minus any algorithms), but there’s still a lot of noise to filter through. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/a-microsoft-solution-for-a-microsoft-problem/ Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/a-microsoft-solution-for-a-microsoft-problem/ By publishing PowerToys, Microsoft gets to avoid improving their products by allowing users to create bizarre workarounds for what seem like simple problems. For example, the lack of shortcut customization in Teams. There is no way to natively turn off CTRL+SHIFT+C from starting a call with whoever you’re currently messaging. I’d occasionally hit C instead of V when trying to “paste without formatting” and have to awkwardly apologies to the other person after calling them. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/bikeshedding/ Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/bikeshedding/ Recently at work, I got the chance to give a presentation on any topic of my choice. As tempting as it was to stay within my comfort zone and come up with something technical or directly related to my role, I decided to pick something outside of my wheelhouse yet relevant to my job, team and nearly anyone who works with other people. That topic was: Bikeshedding. The following are excerpts from the script I prepared to accompany my slides. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/the-importance-of-local-accounts/ Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/the-importance-of-local-accounts/ This week, Ubiquiti (UniFi) had an outage. Among the systems affected were UniFi’s Single Sign-on services. While the outage lasted less than an hour, I started to see reports of people online who were unable to log into their UniFi devices, even when directly connecting to them via a local IP address. UniFi offers remote management interfaces and mobile apps to connect and control your equipment. This is often done using an “Ubiquiti Account. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/6-ios-apps-for-security-2023/ Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/6-ios-apps-for-security-2023/ While still not on-par with Android, Apple has opened up iOS capabilities for app developers in recent years resulting in new apps filling gaps on the platform. This is a list of some of my favorite apps that provide security or privacy benefits. I am not affiliated with any of the apps mentioned, nor do I receive any benefit from downloads or purchases. For greater transparency, every link is to each app’s website rather than the direct App Store page. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/installing-portainer-in-a-proxmox-lxc/ Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/installing-portainer-in-a-proxmox-lxc/ This is a simplified guide to installing Portainer within a Proxmox LXC for homelab use based on my personal notes. Portainer is a handy tool to manage your Docker containers through a clean web interface. This guide assumes you have an functional Proxmox environment and knowledge on how to harden your environment outside of what is described here. This guide does not cover the following topics (though I’d like to write about these some day): https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-modeling/ Sun, 28 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-modeling/ As a cybersecurity program matures, threat intelligence can inform an exercise known as “threat modeling.” At a high level, threat modeling is something people inside and outside of Information Security do daily, whether they realize it or not. Threat modeling is all about understanding a system/process/application/infrastructure, then determining what vulnerabilities or things can go wrong with it and how to prioritize and avoid those weaknesses. In practice, good threat modeling follows a more standard and repeatable process by utilizing the numerous available methodologies. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-intelligence-sharing/ Sun, 21 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-intelligence-sharing/ Different organizations within the same industry will have different cyber defense capabilities for researching, detecting, and stopping threats. Government entities have another set of capabilities that private sectors do not. An organization trying to defend itself from advanced persistent threats does no good working in a bubble if other organizations deal with the same threats. The modern-day internet and technology stacks that businesses rely upon globally were built upon an open and shared foundation, so why should threat intelligence be any different? https://www.cynicalsignals.com/mitre-frameworks/ Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/mitre-frameworks/ Photo by Yan Ots / Unsplash Frameworks are heavily relied upon across many industries. Often a framework is built upon best practice and expert knowledge to serve as the groundwork for others to follow, dramatically reducing the number of resources and time required for internal development. Some frameworks are open-source; others are proprietary. Either way, if an organization is adopting a particular framework, they’re anticipating that the framework will help dictate operational aspects of the business, help find inadequacies, or serve to assist in meeting specific regulatory or compliance requirements. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-intelligence-in-the-soc/ Sun, 07 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-intelligence-in-the-soc/ Photo by Michael Dziedzic / Unsplash Last week was Halloween, and this week marks the end of Daylight Savings, so it’s only appropriate we begin the transition of being afraid of every possible threat towards being more efficient and saving time by utilizing Cyber Threat Intelligence within a security program! The typical Security Operations Center (SOC) in an organization has a daunting task: detect and respond to threats across all aspects of the enterprise. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-intelligence/ Sun, 31 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/cyber-threat-intelligence/ (Photo by Kenny Eliason / Unsplash) It’s Halloween which makes it the perfect time to talk about what keeps Information Security professionals up at night – threats! But not all threats should have you checking the closet and looking under the bed each night. So how do you know which bumps in the night are just your imagination? Fortunately, Cyber Threat Intelligence can help us understand what we should (or shouldn’t) be fearing. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/me/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/me/ Hardware Gaming Desktop Component Detail OS CachyOS x86_64 Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING ATX AM4 CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (16) @ 4.55 GHz GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Memory 64GB Storage 256GB NVMe 2TB NVMe 4TB SSD Monitors Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo S49AG952N 49.0" 5120 x 1440 240Hz Curved Monoprice MPG24FHD 24" 1920x1080 144hz Dell P2319H 23" 1920x1080 60hz Mice Razer Viper V2 Pro Ploopy Adept Trackball Keyboard Keychron Q6 QMK Knob Microphone Audio-Technica ATR2500 DAC SMSL M3 Headphones DT 990 Pro 80 Ohms Speakers Edifier R1280T Network Component Detail Router UDM Pro Switches USW Aggregation USW Pro 24 PoE USW Pro 24 USW Flex XG USW Flex Access Points U6 Pro x 3 NAS UNAS Pro 20TB (5 HDD x 10TB - RAID 10 + Hot Spare) Privacy & Analytics You can read the Privacy Policy of the analytics service I use, GoatCounter, here. https://www.cynicalsignals.com/services/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.cynicalsignals.com/services/ Cybersecurity News and Threat Research Feeds 🟢 FreshRSS: intel.cynicalsignals.com - A collection of public RSS feeds I’ve curated and funneled into one place. You can read more about it here. Spite-Sites 🟢 Stop Piping URLs to Terminals: https://stoppip.ing basic educational page with the added bonus of a small proof-of-concept. Social Media Front Ends ☠ Twitter (Nitter): birdup.lol - Currently down due to Twitter API changes ☠ TikTok (ProxiTok): frogtok.lol - Currently down due to TikTok API changes