So I'm supposed to write some epic bullshit here about a first tweet? Or a Masta? Or whatever we're calling this because Elon Musk doesn't know how to care about people? Fine, I'll do it.

I'm a Christian and I fight business email compromise. That means I work Nigerian fraud, fight 419 scams, have studied voodoo, worked with romance scam victims, understand check fraud, money laundering, crypto investment scams, made small talk with victims, worked with law enforcement, been interviewed by media, and run a lot of TLP:red shit in the background so you don't have to. I do that with 500 other people, struggle with my own mental health due to the amount of baggage that goes along with fighting this crime, but I'm doing my best to keep my head above water and keep on fighting.

I have probably worked with more people than I realize and struggle acknowledging my own work, am quirky as hell, but deep down I really just want to make a better world for everyone. Because at the end of the day that's what we all emotionally want, right? Right???

Be awesome to each other, fight the good fights, buy lunch for a stranger because as Josh Wilson likes to put it, these simple moments change the world. Dream small. <3

I never did a proper introduction post. My name is Rob Fuller. I was lucky enough to be part of @hak5 in the early days and have been a part of that family ever since. I was on some episodes and made a few seasons of a show called "Metasploit Minute" (I never did get it in under a minute, though). I transitioned that show into one called "Practical Exploitation." I started running out of time in the day, never giving that one enough effort.

Outside of Hak5 and in the early years of my career in infosec, I dug in deep with the Metasploit team as I learned how to pentest and Red Team. I also dug in deep with Mid-Atlantic CCDC, where I had minimal restrictions on scope (respecting the intent of the game being the most important). Those two pools of individuals were my mentors and guides in offensive security. The biggest influences were @carnal0wnage, @hdm, and @egypt, all 3 of whom I now call "family." I am fortunate in that regard. If you can surround yourself with your superiors without feeling inferior, that is the real trick to success in life.

My actual career always felt like an extracurricular instead of the other way around. I'm sure many of my bosses and leaders figured that out before I did. Not much to say here outside of how much I miss some of the teams I was on. I learned so much from them. From my early days in the Marine Corps CERT, messing everything up and making every mistake, to my last position on John Strand's amazing Black Hills Infosec team. Each experience taught me so much. The people I worked with constantly teaching me made me into a well-rounded infosec practitioner. Today I stand as a Director with plans to one day be a CISO. To see if some of my crazy ideas of what is possible, along with those experiences from so many other companies, seeing what is possible, to see if they can all be combined into a single company. That sounds like I want to use a company like a lab experiment... probably should erase all of that if I ever want to be considered a CISO... ;-) Oh well, what will be, will be.

If you have made it this far, this is where I talk about my family. I lost my brother to a car accident in 2005. I lost all my grandparents to old age and my father to COVID. I have lost many people I deeply care about who have no blood relation to me. I have gone into deep and dark places. I have also been lucky enough to have a family, a wonderful wife, kids, and this big dysfunctional family called #infosec. While we have right-wing nut-job uncles and left-wing nut-job aunts, we always come together, celebrate our uniqueness, and support each other in ways I did not have growing up. I am eternally grateful to this community and hope to make a dent in what I owe it one day. I consider you all family, and if there is ever anything I can do, I'll be there. Rarely any questions asked... unless it's @jack_daniel or Chris Nickerson, then I'm questioning everything, especially if they ask me to bring the lime this time :P.

I recently finished my Master's degree. This comes after being told by my technology teacher in High School that I was his best 90% student and that I would complete things up to 90% and quit. This haunted me up until I completed my Bachelor's degree in 2019. I would manifest that statement in so many things that I did. I still have issues with it, but it has much less power over me now.

I do security for fun. I know many people think that hobbies are healthy ways to disconnect from work, but my work is what I enjoy, so I don't do a lot of disconnecting. Outside of hanging out with my family, I very much enjoy movies. I go to see as many of them as possible and enjoy the theater experience even though it costs almost more than my first car just to take my family to see a single movie these days.

My only other hobby is reading. I have a terrible problem of wanting to have books everywhere that I am, and I am constantly on the move, so that means I generally buy the physical book, the kindle version, and the audiobook before I'm done with it. I have nearly 500 books at home and roughly 300 books on Audible, and I have listened to or read 99% of them (a few I'm waiting to finish other series before I start them).

I run a blog that I only post to a little. While I don't particularly enjoy consulting, it was the fuel that made my blog posts happen much more often.

I served in the Marine Corps as a 1371 Combat Engineer, learning all about mines, explosives, and construction. Mostly mines and explosives. 4 years in Okinawa, Japan, and four years in Quantico, Virginia, where I had made a lateral move to the 0656 Tactical Data Communications Specialist, where I served at the heart of the Marine Corps cyber division called the MCNOSC at the time. I learned defense, compliance, hardware, software, networking, firewalls, and everything in between. That's when and where I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Not sure how much more of an intro I'm supposed to make, but that's good enough. I am a pretty open book, so if you have questions about that, I'm open to it.

Well I suppose I should introduce myself. I am currently a CTO, I began my career as a software development engineer and quickly moved through different specialties in the last 7 years. I have to know how the black box works! I have done devops, security, compliance, MSA contracting, dealt with both HHS audits and full scale breaches over the years, and so much more!

I especially have a passion for security, I find it especially interesting as it is a constant tug of war. It is so dynamic and ever changing.

Thanks to @jerry for putting this together and looking forward to the interesting posts and collaboration I have come to know and love in the security community!