Brunch with Kevin


Met up with Kevin for a late morning brunch at The Promontory. He was in town for a Ween show the night prior, and despite being up until 3AM… was in surprisingly good spirits.

Hard to believe that it’s been three years since we last hung out together. Although I will say that much of that particular night was designed so that I would remember as little as possible… so I guess the fact that I remember it at all is a little victory, there.

We got a chance to catch up a little, as Kevin swung into Hyde Park on his way back to Indy. I got to learn a bit more about his job, and got more insight into the InfoSec world in general.

For my part, I follow a few InfoSec folks on Twitter – so I have a slight glimpse into that terrifying world. We talked about the security problems inherent in IoT devices, and how a future terrorist attack based on technology was an inevitability.

I got a kick out of hearing about life on the front lines, dealing with companies who are victims of hackers and ransomeware threats. I learned that Kevin once got to participate in “Red Team” exercises, which involve people physically trying to gain access to a location like a data center – all done as a means to assess and test a company’s defenses.

I guess dressing up as an exterminator or a guy pushing a paper shredding bin are easy ways to gain access (which is a nice supplement to the standard “clipboard and a confident wave” approach). Once inside, the person would then plug in a USB drive… and they were off to the races.

In a lot of ways, the stories he told me reminded me of Robert Redford’s team, in the movie Sneakers. For Kevin, the Internet must look like a completely different place – compared to how the rest of us see it.

We had a nice brunch, mostly geeking out about tech. I easily could have spent another few hours, peppering him with questions and talking more about the state of the Internet, security, and what the future holds.

A good visit with an old friend, and really glad we had a chance to catch up a bit.

Related:
Visiting with Jim: Old Friend, New City
Everything is Broken: On Software, Security, and All the Flaws Therein
Kevin’s Bachelor Party
Friends for Eight Years, Meeting for the First Time
Plump’s Last Shot
An Old, Old Friend

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