Petko D. Petkov

16 Oct 2014 | Guests

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Petko D. Petkov. People on The Internet know me simply as pdp or pdp architect. I tweet under @pdp.

I am founder of GNUCITIZEN (an Information Security Think Tank in London) and also founder of Websecurify (a Web Application Security product company - we make scanners, fuzzers, proxies, etc).

I have done many things around security research and even had the chance to contribute to several books. I used to spend most of my time discovering bugs - those that make you say “OMG, we broke The Internet”. Lately, however, I am more involved with building stuff. I love the startup community and I am also entrepreneur at heart.

What hardware do you use?

I like simplicity. Throughout my life I’ve have used countless of devices, which have been disposed as soon as they fulfil their purpose. I stick to one laptop and one phone. I prefer using Apple hardware. All other hardware is emulated and outsourced to other people to manage.

And what software?

I use the Terminal, TextMate and VIM all the time because I code. I use NodeJS, GO, Python and XCode. These are my 4 coding environments. At any given moment I have at least one of these programs open.

Oh, and I use browsers too - like all the time. My entire security testing toolkit is made of web apps, thanks to Websecurify (the company I founded). All tools are delivered as web apps but the actual testing occurs from the browser itself. This is pretty novel when it comes to Software as Service solutions because I can use web-based tools to test stuff on any computing environment that my browser can reach - localhost, virtual machines, stuff behind the corporate firewall, etc. In my mind this is the future for software distribution and this is what I’ve been working on to bring into the information security practice.

What would be your dream setup?

Unlike many quintessential hackers I don’t like the idea of being constantly exposed to radiation from multiple monitors. My perfect setup will be just a phone. All I need is one device that is small enough to carry, which I can plug into larger stations for work whenever I need to. I think we will eventually get there. It will take 5 to 10 years but it will happen.

In terms of software, I am not picky. I can make use of whatever is available.

How do you streamline your workflow?

Automation. Whatever I need to do more than once, I automate.

Is there anything you want to plug?

Yes! Websecurify. It is the best web application security testing software since sliced bread. No, but for real!