Adam Miller and Family

Passed the Test

November 22, 2016 by Adam in Adam

I drove up to Linn-Benton Community College this morning, listening to myself read off various security acronyms. I got settled and reviewed everything again for an hour, stopping for coffee towards the end. Eventually I checked into the test, getting rid of all my electronics, showing ID, signing things, and getting my picture taken. The test itself was somewhat challenging, a mix of simple facts and applied knowledge questions. An hour and a half later I walked out and ended up with 859 out of 950 points, with 750 needed to pass.

Hopefully it gives me a little more street cred, though it's really just the start of the endless certification cycle.

Study, Study

November 16, 2016 by Adam in Adam

I'm spending my days at work studying for my Security+ exam. It's both interesting and occasionally tedious. My brain is full of port numbers and encryption algorithms. Progress is going pretty well - I finished the 250+ videos and am halfway through a series of PowerPoint slides that covers the material. I've been taking the end-of-chapter quizzes and getting in the 85% to 90% range.

I'm going to see how far I can get over the next couple days. If I feel pretty confident and continue to do well on the practice tests, I'll shoot for taking the actual exam on Friday otherwise I'll schedule it for next week.

Hopefully having the certification gives me an air of authority. It's been fun digging a little deeper into things I kinda knew already. The details of encryption are kinda fascinating - basically our entire information age economy is based on math.

Mr. Security Engineer

August 18, 2016 by Adam in Adam

I've formally accepted the security engineer position after a lot of heartache and soul searching. Switching jobs is painful and I had many nights tossing and turning this week. I'm still not entirely certain what awaits me, but there's a certain type of peace in knowing what awaits me.

My manager is out this week, which is unfortunate. I feel vaguely guilty not talking to him, but I wasn't sure I was really going to get the job for a long time. Not having switched positions for 18 years, I'd forgotten how long things take sometimes.

I'm hoping I get to hold on to the security-related work I currently do, and start getting up to speed on the exciting world of security. I keep thinking of security issues we need to fix and different types of things I want to look for. There's also a desire for us to all get a certain security certificate, so I'll be spending some time studying up on various security concepts.

Yesterday news came out that a group called the Shadow Brokers, likely backed the Russians, had stolen NSA's hacking tools and released them. Now we're trying to get things patched to prevent people from using them against us.

It's all exciting and terrifying and fascinating.

And Then There Was One

January 20, 2016 by Adam in Adam

I just heard that Jonathan gave his notice today. He's going to Health Catalyst, like so many other ex-PeaceHealth developers. Jonathan got a raise and will lead a team building web applications, which sounds like a great opportunity. Of course, that leaves me as the last remaining developer, maintaining 150+ web applications developed by ten different people over the last couple decades.

I stumbled down to get myself a mocha, half joking with the barista that she could slip something stronger in there. I had a nice chat with Dave, who I've worked with for a long time. My old boss Glen, who works for Health Catalyst now, sent me a "hey, think about working here" email. I responded, expressing an interest in at least figuring out what my options are.

While I'm still in a bit of a daze, I think I'm going to ask for a raise (I didn't get one last year). I'll also see what Health Catalyst comes back in terms of job opportunities. Assuming I stick around at PeaceHealth, I'll need to go into emergency mode, taking care of the most critical issues while training up a new web development team. I do occasionally think about how devastating my departure would be to PeaceHealth. My company hasn't exactly treated us well the last few years, so I have mixed feelings about how that would turn out. Seeing something I had such a big hand in creating fall apart seems a little sad.

Anyway, I'm going to keep pondering options and talking to people. We'll see how it goes.

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Passed the Test

Study, Study

Mr. Security Engineer

And Then There Was One