Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Stand by for news!
Okay, that's long enough. Now the news!
Today mark's my last day at Salesloft after nearly 5 years. It has been a very eventful time.
- Buyout by Private Equity
- 2 Mergers/Acquisitions
- 4 CEOs
- 7 Rounds of Layoffs
- Death of my mother
- Death of a beloved pet.
- Leadership role through a major security incident.
- Scaled a security team of 2 up to 8 and rebuilt the entire program from the ground up.
I can honestly say I learned a great deal working through all of these events. I had a great team who I will miss working with and who I owe all of our success too. I also saw some terrible leadership decisions and predictably terrible outcomes as a result. Wisdom generating events, as I like to call them.
So what's next? I'm going to take a bit of a break to try to get back to being the person I strive to be. Then I'm going to look for some new interesting adventures. Consulting, fractional work, part time, non-traditional engagements, or even full time work is all on the table. I am looking to find something that excites me again working with quality people. Life is too short to not be inspired by how we spend our precious limited time.
So if you find my particular mix of security skill and snark of use, please reach out!
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
The next time your employer asks you to go the extra mile or work those extra hours or support “the family” just remember all the layoffs happening right now to people who did all of those things.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Tikaboo Peak, Legendary Area 51 Viewing Spot, Closed by U.S. Government https://theaviationist.com/2026/05/02/tikaboo-peak-area-51-spot-closed/
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
I’m seeing a lot of companies say that they are measuring AI usage as a performance metric.
The assumption is AI usage == efficiency.
I think this is a poor metric. They should try to measure actual efficiency metrics, not tool use. See exhibit A:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/amazon-employees-are-tokenmaxxing-due-to-pressure-to-use-ai-tools/
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Y'all got any more of them security patches? | iOS 26.5 has fixes for 50 security issues on iPhone, details here https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/11/ios-26-5-has-fixes-for-50-security-issues-on-iphone-details-here/
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Executives bragging about coding again and shipping production code with AI because they can misses a huge massive point.
Is this really the BEST use of an executives limited time and mental energy?
Sure, it makes them feel productive and “in touch” but the role of a executive should be strategy, setting direction and priorities, hiring and mentoring their staff, holding teams accountable, and enabling their teams to be successful.
This is ego and shiny toy syndrome talking. It’s a distraction from critical high leverage work only they can do.
If you want to fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
So, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, published a letter on X about his companies future and his planned layoffs.
You can find the full post here: https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2051616759145185723?s=20
So many folks, rightly so, have zeroed in on this sentence with serious angst:
"Non-technical teams are now shipping production code..."
I think this is the inevitable outcome of the past 30 years. First cloud, then SaaS, now vibe coding has moved IT ownership to the masses.
I don't think this is great for security, governance, or oversight, but it's AMAZING for CEOs and boards who just want to go fast and break things and "empower their people."
I'm not belittling "the masses." But they aren't technologists, by and large.
And what is being demanded of them by misguided leaders is to run some massively complex SaaS/Cloud/Coding tool that "Looks Easy Enough" but all of the devil is in the details that only hard core technologist would know or care about.
I believe this is why we have seen so many breaches based on misconfigurations and poor secret management and poor API/Token/Oauth management. The people making those design decisions aren't equipped with the skills to understand the consequences of their design choices.
They are marketing people, or sales people, or HR people, or whatever. They have other important skills, but we have forced IT onto them because leadership massively underestimates the complexity, risk, and specialized knowledge required to run it safely.
"I mean, how hard can a surgery robot be? You just push buttons right? Get the front desk guy to do it!"
This is inevitable, but stupid. Good luck to us all.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
3rd Row for Josh Gates Live. Popped for the meet and greet. We’re nerds.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
I think we need to bring back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucked_Company but now for companies that get fucked by their own AI usage.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.
Proof that occasionally @jerry@infosec.exchange and I are in the same room.
Elder Nerd. Pilot, IT Security Leader, firearms instructor, speaker, author, photographer. Award-Losing Co-host of the Defensive Security and Getting Defensive Podcasts. Mostly posting about Infosec, Aviation, and cats.