ICE’s rampant technology spending raises the possibility of "targeted surveillance, not just of undocumented people, but of American citizens as well,” EFF’s @cooperq.com told @Axios.com. www.axios.com/2025/10/21/...

Extremely bad. Most Fortune 500 firms, banks, big tech, infrastructure, gov, mil, are their customers 😬

LASCON is in Austin. Yay! Found out today and it’s sold out. Damn. See that most of the talks are AI-focused, so I won’t be missing much. Yay! See a few talks that I’d want to see. Damn. Sigh.

Successfully completed my morning routine with no music, podcasts, audiobooks, nada. You don’t know how many deep sighs I took on my morning walk. I feel light. And it also has the added benefit of starting my day off with lower amounts of insta-dopamine and copious amounts of slow dopamine.

I’ve also been raw dogging my walks. No music. No podcasts. Just the sounds of the present moment. Park time with no music, no podcasts, nothing. Next will be morning routines. I just need to give my brain a break while it’s conscious.

The first time I did it, I watched the clouds for 10 mins, and then turned over to go face down on the blanket. My dog jumped on my head about 5 mins into that, but it was nice. Some guy was walking towards me at some point, but my dog’s barks made him change direction. The only weird thing.

It’s better when there are actual clouds up there, but I have looked at the blue, too. Because at my local park, laying on something that is laying on the grass, it kind of feels like a different dimension. I feel like I’m not here anymore. I feel myself deep body sigh intermittently. Tension go 💨.

I don’t touch grass because animals use it as a bathroom, but lately, I have been going to my local park, laying down on my picnic blanket, and looking up at the sky for an hour. No earphones or headphones. Literally just looking at the sky, with only the sounds of my dog’s pants as the music.

I’m working on Cybersecurity Awareness Month stuff and I see two themes. CISA says the theme is Building A Cyber Strong America. But the National Cybersecurity Alliance says “Stay Safe Online.” I’m leaning towards using the second one, but why the difference?

Finally, the inspiration is flowing and the wheels are turning.

And now that it’s cooler outside in the mornings, I also let the cool air in. I miss letting fresh air in daily. Maybe it’s something I can do more often when I move.

Finally got the right coffee maker for me (I’m not that much of a coffee drinker to enjoy the process of a pour over situation) and am making coffee at home now. Very very amateur set up, but it makes me happy to have my one cup in the morning while I journal. Next step, learning to make it iced.

My dog knows how to open doors now. Not like turn the knob, but like, if a door is cracked, she will push it open. She’s never even tried to do it before lol. She’d just wait as if the door was closed. 3.5 years old and now she’s opening cracked doors and barging in lmaoooo

Ahhhhh, I love the fresh smell of a dumpster fire in the morning, don't you?

Just a reminder...

This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.

After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.

And finally, maybe ask yourself: How much of your life is spent proving things to others? How much time have you spent proving the same things to yourself over and over again? Why aren’t you accepting what you know? What would it mean to accept the thing you’re avoiding?

I think being clear now on my end goal means there are things that no longer matter. Taking the time to prove things to myself also means the opinion of others has lessened in significance. Now, it’s about my end goal. And helping people. And living my life.

And another point, maybe the elephant in the room that I regularly have to greet… Being a black woman in this space means a lot of people will assume a lot of things about me without me even saying a thing…even IF I say a contradictory thing. If it’s to my benefit, I’ll let them. I’m tired LOL.

I find so many people have wounds attached to how smart people think they are…especially in our field. But most people don’t need to know you’re smart. They won’t do anything meaningful with that knowledge but maybe use you? Maybe sometimes it’s not to your benefit that people think you’re smart.

I won’t say I do it often but if someone assumes I’m an idiot and it’s to my benefit, I’ll let them keep thinking that. People’s opinions don’t really matter and those who matter typically will be able to tell if I’m smart or not.

It can be done quick or it can be done right. I’ve rarely seen both in the industry.

I am NO expert, but the community seems to be suffering from the same thing we try to educate humans about: fast thinking (emotional, quick) versus slow thinking (logical, reasoning). It’s why education/awareness fields try to tell people to step back, pause, and think before they click.

"Security professionals are praised for being fast. We celebrate quick turnarounds, instant responses, low Time-to-Close. But is anyone asking whether we’re better at thinking…or just reacting?" This is a quote from last week's piece on urgency in security. Check it out below:

I also lost momentum having to miss swim class two weeks in a row waiting for this swim cap lmao. Thank god I have chlorine removal shampoo now.

Tried 3 swim caps and they all made my hair wet 😭 “My clients use this and swim every day, their hair is never wet…” Yeah, well, they are either lying or have 3 strands of hair. Because how???

New episode! 🎙️ I spoke with @damienjburks about his journey from game dev dreams to cloud security success ☁️💻 🔹 AWS vs GCP vs Azure 🔹 Why Python matters 🔹 DevSecOps advice 🔹 Building community in cyber Watch/listen: youtu.be/r_3iZJcFORs #Cybersecurity #CloudSecurity #DevSecOps

My mom on the phone: It's my daughter's fault, beat her up. Now why am I in it???

Y’all know that KPop Hunters movie? There are so many catchy songs from it. They’ve been stuck in my head all day.

Proud of myself. I’m making some big girl decisions today.

The thing is...sometimes, talking about security is boring. And that's because we have the same convos over and over and over again. With new technology. So, I won't be talking about things that others talk about. I will be human-centered. That's my bag. I focus on the people behind the machines.

So, I have two brands I am managing right now: Just a Sec with Steph is a more personal brand, where I talk about things like my neurospice, personal development, learning and growing, fee fees (emotions), etc. The Sec Edit is for security-related content, but still aligned with who I am.

✨ new substack just dropped ✨ i’ve been quiet for a minute, but i’m back with a new format, an epiphany, and a gentle promise to stop giving all my energy to things that don’t give back. Also, I'm on a biweekly schedule now! 📝 read here: open.substack.com/pub/justasec... 💛 comment if it resonates

Yesterday, my dad told me “Well, life is not fair. So you know how things go.” And I go “So? Why should I be okay with that? Life can be unfair all it wants, call me the balancer.”

I’ve also been learning a lot about my Igbo heritage. Separation from the Christian faith has cracked that door wide open in a way that I never thought would happen. It’s causing me grief to see how much was demonized and rejected because of Christianity and colonization.

I have a newsletter coming out this week, and then I’m back on a regular newsletter schedule. Also gonna be releasing 1 “Diary of a Security Analyst” post on The Sec Edit. Being busy, building skills, keeping my eyes on the prize, and staying informed are how I’m getting through these times.

Amidst all the calamity, I find pockets of joy. I’m in improv classes, swimming lessons, and I just applied to the local community college for some continuing education classes. I haven’t hiked as much this summer because of the rain, even though it’s a cooler summer than the last 3 summers.

Survival tools don’t always translate well in seasons of growth.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely soft skills dominant. I have hard skills, but my soft skills garner more success overall, both in execution and reception. Neurotypicals, though, or maybe just corporate environments, have an unnatural affinity for blatant deception and appeasement.

Not to mention, it's EXHAUSTING. It's like I am expected to speak a language without a dictionary or a translator. And no matter how transparent I am about my personality and work style, I am still expected to participate in utter and complete nonsensical dialogue... And people find it...FUN.

There are a lot of soft skills I'm not good at. One of those skills is talking in circles just to appease leadership. No actual logic to the circle talking, just doing it because the dynamic is a preferred one. My neurospicy brain cannot exist in those dynamics without making people mad.

I think that I’ve felt the most amount of mental isolation since the election occurred. I don’t have anyone around me that wishes to discuss things, preferring BAU. I don’t blame or judge them. However, I am left alone with my own thoughts and that’s been rough.

Happy Juneteenth!

I had a near tango with death/tragedy this past weekend and maybe I’m being dramatic…but I know I’m not. I don’t really know what I feel. Gratitude is there, but it’s not the only thing there. It is where people feel most comfortable receiving me, but it’s only one emotion out of trillions.

Finally got a Friday the 13th tattoo!

I was trying to live laugh love my way past this shit but this world is going insane. What the helly is going on???

In other news, I have acquired a Chromebook for travel. What do y’all feel about Chromebooks?

I travel soon and I’m a bit worried about it.

If you're interested, I have been working on a lil Ghost website for the past month and some change. It's up on thesecedit.com. It's just got 3 posts right now, but that's where I will be sharing my security-related stuff. Very Steph & Sec coded, but more relevant to who I am today.