It took many years but I finally started a [digital garden](https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history) of my own. I hope you enjoy my small corner of the internet and can see it grow. This space is a personal blog where I share my thoughts and document my journey as a hacker, tinkerer and general diy'er. The project was started in early 2023 as I began my sabbatical. I have two stated goals the more general of enjoying free range research and the specific goal of thinking and figuring out what I want my career and life to be from this point forward. 2023 may be the worst tech market in over a decade to quit without a job but I believe we all must **abandon comfort** to excel. I anticipate that the main focus of this digital garden will be my security research, as I plan to adopt an open approach to my posts. Whether in the form of notes or more polished documents, I will share my work with anyone who might find it useful. I keep throwing around the word 'research', but researcher sounds a bit too lofty for my liking. I prefer to think of myself as an experienced security practitioner – more of a technical craftsman + applied scientist, less of a university researcher. My work involves combining my deep experience and attacker mindset with the latest innovations and research to design and build robust security solutions. I find vulnerabilities and help organizations enhance resilience to security threats. However, I strongly believe that every effective security team must prioritize research engineering. Teams should feel empowered and motivated to tackle projects that may not always yield immediate results. Security engineering is often an exercise in exploring multiple paths and testing assumptions, which can lead to dead ends or inefficient solutions. We must embrace failure. When not hacking, I enjoy building and crafting projects around my home. Weekends are a chance for me to relish in tasks like laying concrete, planting trees, power washing, and painting. My love for the outdoors draws me to activities like hiking and gravel biking. When the weather gets too hot for outdoor activities, I enjoy weightlifting. Apart from physical activities, I appreciate the art of architecture and often take walks around cities to admire the buildings. Although I'm not an expert I find the subject fascinating. Lastly, when I'm not hacking or working out, you'll often find me attending music festivals and raves. I have an affinity for dnb, techno, and bass music. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it. Lastly, I am open to consulting and the right employment opportunities[0], if you are interested in working together reach out. I can help your organization with offensive testing, application security, tooling, security architecture, and much more. [0] : [Resume](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16pHeWeR9VgViT1Gu6WNY2X619vuyf8FZ/view?usp=sharing)