Spiral Bound Journal

Tech Chatter Among Friends

With a sigh, Dana scrolled through the PowerPoint slides. While breach investigations merited some changes in phrasing to make C-Suite types understand the scope, the simplification here appeared to omit vital details. She saved a copy to her hard drive before adding comments to the more problematic portions of the presentation draft. Some of the comments evolved into paragraphs that deserved keyboard-smashing GIFs.

Dana was in the middle of one such paragraph when she spotted a flicker on her phone screen. Curious, she retrieved her phone and found a new Signal notification. Seeing it was from HarHar, Dana unlocked her phone. It was easy enough to pass it off as a work-related message given they worked in the world of cybersecurity.

"I could use a break, anyway," she muttered while waiting for Signal to open.

HarHar: Hey, there! Surviving the week?

Dana: So far, but the review I'm working on is making that questionable.

HarHar: Ha! I'm kind of afraid to ask what came down that pike.

Dana: Yeah, you should be afraid. What isn't proprietary information is likely a case of a middle aged director getting sucked into deadline-driven FOMO and clicking on a phishing link.

HarHar: For the love of Christ.

Dana: That's what I said.

HarHar: How bad did things get (that you can share)?

Dana: When a director gets caught up in phishing, well, things spread very quickly.

HarHar: Oh shit.

Dana: Yeah, and having to essentially lay blame that high has made this presenter nervous.

HarHar: Really> I mean, I kind of get it, but I would also love to challenge authority like that.

Dana: You and me both. This presenter, on the other hand, is kind of a people pleaser.

HarHar:

Dana: Same, although I'd add a or 2

HarHar: Or five

Dana: I'm not so sure how well I'd handle five these days.

HarHar: Man, getting old sucks.

Dana: Yeah, getting old, having crappy adrenal glands, etc.

HarHar: Fair enough.

Dana: Point is, I've been spending the last hour or so making notes about how this presentation's attempts to calm down the bigwigs leaves out major details the C-Suite actually needs to know in order to prevent future attacks. That and support funding to prevent future attacks.

HarHar: Oh, man, trying to get them to recognize that a slightly higher cost up front is still less than paying for a full fledged breach is tough.

Dana: You know it.

HarHar: Anything else exciting happening in your world?

Dana: Prepping for another VidCon gig. GOing to Anaheim this year.

HarHar: Oh, wow. My condolences.

Dana: Aw, thanks.

HarHar: Is Morgan going with you?

Dana: Well, given that the Reardon Brothers will be in attendance, it tempted him, but he suspected that an actual fight would break out if he was there.

HarHar: And Morgan is not a fighter, well, not physically, anyway.

Dana: Truth. And that's my job.

HarHar: I believe that.

Dana: I'm going to pack the number ticker even though looking at the attendee list it's anyone's guess who would need it.

HarHar: NO standout names?

Dana: Hell, I don't recognize half the names. See previous comments about getting old.

HarHar: Ain't that the truth?

Dana: I did see BombardierBeetle in the list of creators that will be there. He's been big ever since he did that massive fact checking video a year or so ago.

HarHar: And the plagiarism one.

Dana: Ah, yes. A true classic right there.

HarHar: Think you'll get to photograph his panel?

Dana: Man, I hope so. That would be pretty awesome. How about you? Anything interesting?

HarHar: I might be doing some research into a former sponsor of mine.

Dana: Damn! That sounds kind of intense.

HarHar: It is. I'm torn on whether or not to do it. Thing is, it's a sponsor that many in the gaming space know but is largely off the radar of investigative YouTube. I'm being approached since I have a foot in each of those spaces.

Dana: On the other hand, that very same trait could make it a conflict of interest (or at least look like one).

Dana set her phone aside for a bit. She knew she needed to finish her review before lunch, and she still had a bit of a ways to go. With a sigh, she refocused on the presentation and hoped she could suppress the urge to throttle this presenter. In Dana's eyes, this easy on the C-Suite delivery teetered on the edge of twee. That wasn't going to stand so long as Dana had any say in the matter.

To her relief, she did complete the review before eating, although she had to push her lunch back a few minutes in order to make that happen. At least now she could grab some tasty jollof from the cafeteria and distance herself from forensic dilemmas for an hour. The real trick would be to find some articles to read that had nothing to do with her cybersecurity work.

Once she had her lunch, Dana claimed a booth near the dish return conveyor. Yes, the booth could hold four people, but it had cloth seating, a rarity in a sea of plastic chairs in the cafeteria's total seating area. Plus more room gave her space to sit cross-legged while eating. She unlocked her phone and popped open a can of cherry seltzer. Looking down, she saw another Signal notification. She had left HarHar hanging earlier, so she opted to read his response before eating.

HarHar: I'm hearing whispers from some of my gamer friends that the former sponsor hasn't sent payments in six months. I think I HAVE to investigate this now.

"Holy shit," Dana whispered. "Good luck, HarHar."