Maybe I’m Not an Imposter

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Imposter syndrome is something I struggle with All. The. Time.

It hit me Monday, what did I actually do?

So I made a list:

  • Business planning
  • Consulting for a new software company in the channel
  • Finished a custom conference table
  • Fixed an automatic paper folder
  • Printed and folder 240 direct mail pieces

And of course, that is in addition to more mundane things that are a part of the every day.

But it was looking at the list of things I did on a day I didn’t feel like I did much that helped me see: I’m not an imposted. Maybe I don’t have it all together, but I’ve got most of it.

There are many other days I feel like I didn’t get nearly enough done, or can’t point to some big thing I did. But the truth is, just doing my every day is a lot.

I’ve got eight kids, seven in the house.

I run — a lot. 15 miles is a slow week, (Before I got COVID, anything less than 30 miles was a bad week)

I own a small business where I wear three C-level hats (CEO, CFO, CMO).

And somehow, in all of that (*cough* while running*) I’ve listened to Audible for 45 minutes a day this year, on average. That doesn’t count anything read on Kindle.

Just living my life is enough to defeat imposter syndrome.

And you know what? I bet your life is the same. I’m sure we have more differences than similarities but I imagine if you took a third-party’s view on your own life, you’d find that you’re not an imposter, either.

No One is Filth, Everyone is Filth

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A few weeks ago a state senator in Oklahoma called LGTBQ people “filth”:

“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state – we are a moral state,” Woods said. “We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.”

I have only my anger — and sadness in response.

Anger because this is so far away from how Jesus treated anybody, spoke to anybody or how the New Testament speaks of people. Indeed, in a letter Paul wrote, he calls himself the worst of sinners.

Such language isn’t even used in the most oft-cited passaged against LGBTQ lifestyles. The harshest language in the entire New Testament is reserved for hypocritical religious leaders, whom Jesus calls “snakes.”

Sadness, because people will believe that this is what Christians believe and what the Bible says. Sadness, because it is what many Christians believe. I believe you can legitimately believe that someone is not living up to the standards set in the Bible and still respect them, see them as people, and realize that you are the same — because none of us are able to live up to those standards.

So let me condemn this language, it should never be said of anybody, and it is absolutely wrong to use it against people that already discriminated against disproportionately. Never ever ever.

Darfur

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The beginning of genocide is being observed in Darfur, again. I really have no words for this. The Wall Street Journal has a thorough article, documenting the killings, and the acts of war that have already began.

The very worst, most unbelievable, horrendous thing in the article was holding a mother at gunpoint while setting fire to her, house with three children all under 10 inside. None made it out.

I am unable to remotely comprehend this level of evil.

I am unable to comprehend, watching my children being burned alive.

I am unable to comprehend hearing their screams and being able to do nothing, except die with them, which I imagine I would, deathly preferable to life at that point.

I lack the wisdom of Solomon, and have not the faintest idea of what we, the international community, America ought to do. But doing nothing is only marginally better than complicit.

SaaS Alerts to Software Companies: Give Us More Data

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SaaS applications have become the most dangerous and widespread threat vector for businesses of all sizes. A key issue in keeping them secure is that many software companies DO NOT include security log data in their APIs, which inhibits user behavior monitoring inside those applications.

SaaS Alerts is circulating a petition — it isn’t clear to who — to ask software companies to include security log data in their APIs. This is, in some ways, an odd petition. Very few people want to directly consume this type of data unless they already run a SIEM or syslog server, in which case they typically expect the data in a format their SIEM or syslog can already ingest.

I understand the petition as asking for a Restful API (although I expect SaaS Alerts would use a syslog feed if that was all that was available). I’ll assume that SaaS Alerts would like the ability to have events pushed (i.e., webhooks) and searchable. It’s what I’d want.

At its most basic, this is a petition to give SaaS Alerts more business — which is fine by me; JM Addington Technology Solutions was their 4th customer as we love working with them. Beyond that there are a lot of reasons to like the idea.

First, the security events for most SaaS applications are completely opaque. Vendors like Intuit, Keap, Zoom, Huntress, and most Kaseya products do not offer much — if any — visibility into IAM events that take place. You don’t know if there are unsuccessful logins (unless you are locked out), who accessed what and when, or deleted something, or created something, or created a new user, and so on. The SaaS Alerts petition is a request to change this, to ask these vendors to give us visibility into the security events on the platforms we use every day.

The second reason I like the idea is that it greatly expands the services MSPs like mine can offer to clients. I think it would be a huge win to be able to offer monitoring — and remediation — for SaaS products. Security around their entire data perimeter.

Third, it would let us build out a new class of products. Today, JM Addington Technology Solutions and CyberSecureRIA have built a custom reporting and compliance tool that includes reporting for M365 and G Suite, two platforms that do have security log data in their APIs. I would absolutely love to expand that to a broader range of products.

Finally, it would add accountability. With no transparency into the inner workings of most SaaS applications, we have to pray and hope that platforms are not only protecting their infrastructure but our own tenants as well.

Why an API and Not Syslog?

Because JSON APIs are easily consumable today. All modern programming languages support them, often nativeily. Syslogs are also one way, you either consumed it at the time the info was sent or you lost it. The ability to search and request items that were not successfully sent is helpful.

Report: no reason to fire Sam Altman

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Ars Technica

After reportedly interviewing dozens of people and reviewing over 30,000 documents, [the legal firm hired to investigate Altman’s firing] found that while the prior board acted within its purview, Altman’s termination was unwarranted. “WilmerHale found that the prior Board acted within its broad discretion to terminate Mr. Altman,” OpenAI wrote, “but also found that his conduct did not mandate removal.”

I am neutral on Sam Altman as a whole. I think that this episode is a net—negative for keeping AI development in check — especially at Open AI, as Sam Altman now essentially seems invincible.

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