Issue Nº 1 · Chapter Five
Now
Consider this my current save file: what I'm working on, what I'm building, who I'm helping, and what I'm crashing into trees at the weekend. No feed, no algorithm, no highlight reel. It updates when life does.
Last updated
What I'm working on
C:\SHAK> TYPE NOW.TXT
- WORK
- Cybersecurity solutions engineering with a focus on AI security: how organisations adopt it safely, and how attackers are already using it
- BUILDING
- Hands-on labs for CyberDesserts, running in GitHub Codespaces so anyone can launch them in a browser with no kit, no install and no cloud bill. The nmap lab is the current template: four sandboxed target hosts, one click to start, 60 to 90 minutes of real reconnaissance practice
- MENTORING
- Several people across cybersecurity, from career changers to practitioners levelling up. Almost every conversation lands on the same thing: proof of work
- WRITING
- The CyberDesserts blog, practical security education for 5,000+ monthly readers
- SIDE QUEST
- The King of Cybersecurity, my satirical security handbook: ten royal decrees of security hygiene, told as dark-fantasy comedy
- OFF DUTY
- FPV flying most weekends. My favourite is a Meteor75 Pro with a DJI camera, and the goal is cleaner aerial acrobatics rather than faster ones. Otherwise the gym, and table tennis (getting better all the time)
- BASE
- Oxfordshire, England
C:\SHAK> DIR /LAST-UPDATED
NOW TXT 06-09-26 1 file(s)
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How I mentor: building proof of work
I mentor a number of people in cybersecurity at the moment, and the focus is nearly always the same: building portfolio evidence. Not another certificate, not a course you sat through, but proof that you have actually done the work.
The approach I keep pointing people at is proof of work: small, documented security wins that compound. Fix the unpatched router. Get a family member onto a password manager and 2FA. Write up what you found and why it mattered. Then share it, in a blog post, a lunch-and-learn, a talk. No budget needed, no permission needed, no waiting for the perfect project. No act of help is too small to count.
Do that for a few months and you stop being someone who is trying to get into security. You are someone with a body of work people can see. That is the bit I am genuinely passionate about, and it is why the labs matter too: they give people something real to do on a Tuesday evening, and something honest to write up afterwards.
If you want that kind of help, the door is open. Start with how I can help.
Why a now page?
C:\SHAK> TYPE README.NOW
Blame Derek Sivers for this one. The rule is simple: one page, on your own site, saying what you're actually into at the moment. An about page is the past tense, ideas are the future tense, and this is the present. It has no engagement metrics and it is not trying to sell you anything. If it has gone stale, nudge me.
C:\SHAK> DIR
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