Security Setup

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Daniel Miessler

22 Sep 2014 | Guests

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Daniel Miessler, and I am an information security specialist and writer based out of San Francisco.

What hardware do you use?

I have a Bretford Liquid Workstation desk, which I purchased in 2003, and a Herman Miller chair I got at the same time.

I run a 2012 Macbook Pro as my main workstation at home with two Thunderbolt displays combined with the built-in display, and I take it with me as my laptop when I’m mobile.

For my home servers I have two high-end HP Workstations running ESXi and HyperV. On these systems I have a combined 152GB of memory and 44 functional cores, which I use to run a few different firewalls, multiple Linux servers, and a whole ecosystem of Windows boxes - including a 2012 domain with three DCs - plus whatever seems interesting at any given moment.

For internet servers I use Linode.

For my mobile phone I’m using an iPhone 6 Plus. I’ve been on iPhone since 2007 when the first one launched.

My internet is through Webpass, which provides bi-directional 100Mbit connections for $38/month. Very pleased with them.

I also use an AppleTV as my home media system, but it only gets turned on every few weeks. I’m using it mostly to rewatch Dr. Who.

I use a Synology NAS for local file storage, and I have a couple of WS-C3560C Cisco switches for networking.

And what software?

For OS I use OS X as my main operating system at home, and I have converted over to CentOS for all of my Linux use. Here’s the rest of my web stack.

I use a combination of Apple Notes and Reminders as my note taking system, and I am always with blank 3x5 index cards and a space pen to help me organize my thoughts in the vein of GTD.

My main apps on my Mac are CS6 for most photo-related work, VMware Fusion for running Windows 8.

I use Droplr for file sharing, which allows you to take screenshots, send files, and share all manner of things through custom URLs off of my site. Be sure to enable the more secure URLs, though. : )

I also use and recommend Fl.ux, which sets the display temperature of your displays based on ambient light and time of day.

What would be your dream setup?

My long-term dream setup is fairly ambitious, and involves using a single integrated platform for everything. Storage would be both locally available and globally backed up in the cloud, and it would be seamlessly available from any system I was properly authenticated to. And when I disjoined that system from my ecosystem, all data on that system would be destroyed.

But that’s a ways off. A more current and attainable configuration would be something like the following:

Ultimately I’m pretty happy with my current configuration, but I’m looking forward to coming improvements.

Editor’s Note…

I highly recommend checking out Daniel’s website, he’s a prolific blogger and has some excellent study or “primer” pages where he goes into depth on a given subject. Lots of great information for InfoSec professionals. I have also found his SecLists project to be incredibly useful during security assessments.