Writing a Thousand Pages in a Year: Insights from Cybersecurity Expert Daniel W. Dieterle

As you know, we follow up on our guests from time to time, to know what they’re now up to, how much they’ve progressed and that we care for them as part of the community, not just as a weekly piece. This time, we’ll see how our friend Daniel W. Dieterle is doing. It’s been a while since chatted last 2019. His mantra is about believing in oneself and not giving up. Sounds cliché, but very true and applies to everyone. He now has more very interesting stuff to tell us and not just words of encouragement.

Hi Daniel, what have you been up to since we spoke last? Kindly share with us any new Insights, achievements and Milestones? 

It’s so good to talk with you again. I just wanted to share some updates in my life since my last talk with you. I have been writing security training material for over 10 years, but last year was my biggest year as a writer. I finally, FINALLY finished my Kali Linux book series!

“Advanced Security Testing with Kali Linux” was supposed to be done years ago, but I kept putting it aside to write other books. I started it many times, but the time never felt right, and I worked on something else. I’m glad to say, I finished it!

That and I also updated my popular “Security Testing with Raspberry Pi”. I am amazed how popular the Raspberry Pi book has become. It honestly was born from just tinkering around with them, now enthusiasts from all over the world and top government entities use it.

Between releasing two books and writing numerous professional articles, I published over a thousand pages last year! Needless to say, I don’t want to write anymore, lol. I want to move away from writing, and want to start a cyber security school. I will start by creating video training classes to go along with my books, but I already have other leaders in the field show interest in doing “guest author” classes on it. I’m excited about the possibilities!

I say I don’t want to write anymore, but this year I have already released another new book, my ninth book. It is a complete cover to cover update and re-write of “Basic Security Testing with Kali Linux”. That’s it, I promise, no more books, lol!

Though I don’t do it as much anymore, I still love tech editing new material for publishing companies. This way, I get to see and even help shape the new security training material coming out. Some publishers are still looking for tech editors or reviewers, so this is a great way to see new topics first and have a finger in helping develop the field. Computer magazines are also always looking for new writers, of all skill levels. It’s not only a wonderful experience, it’s a great way to get out there and get noticed!

Ahem. Aside from books, what other future projects do you have?

Now that my book writing is mostly finished, I want to turn to creating supplemental video training classes, but also get back to working with Raspberry Pis. I love Raspberry Pis, I think they are the perfect tool for use in security. A couple years ago I started creating a “Smart Pentest DropBox”.

Basically, a DropBox is a hacker box you take onsite during a pentest or red Team engagement and leave it onsite to grant you remote access to the target. My Smart DropBoxes have extra intelligence built in using sensors and AI. For example, they could only attack when the lights in the office are on – people are there – or when it detects a specific person by an active Bluetooth device. My favorite - I have a working prototype with a camera that will only perform attacks when it recognizes a specific person.

Pis are a lot of fun, but I think one of the hottest topics in Cyber right now is Ai. ChatGPT has really grown in popularity in the security community and it is being used daily by individuals and companies in every level of the field. Everything from writing security reports, preparing speeches and training videos to actually being used in security tests and exploit development. Is it perfect?

No… But it does save a lot of time for many writing tasks and is a huge help in coding. You just need to, how do I put this? Fact check it sometimes… Okay, maybe often, lol!

I was invited to a government cybersecurity conference where they demonstrated the current and future uses of AI. Where they are at right now with AI attacks is very impressive. They are programming them to look like real traffic, to blend in, to look as normal as possible. But the big difference will be speed – an AI can attack much faster than a human can respond – so at some point we will have fully autonomous Offensive and Defensive AI’s battling it out.

And it’s not just being developed for hacking attacks. A demonstration was given of a fully automated AI impersonating an executive. The Ai was used to call the company help desk support line for a “password reset”. The voice was amazing - the pauses the inflections were perfect, to me it sounded so real. Apparently so to the help desk worker as well, as they granted the AI voice the password reset!

This isn’t just a future tech, social engineers are using AI voices in calls now with success.

Those are some interesting projects. Thank you very much. Aside from not giving up, what other life mantra do you follow that everyone else should?

Be kind to each other and pay it forward. This is and has always been the key to my success. I have had so many leaders from so many different fields pour into my life, help me out in so many ways when I was building my career. I try to do the same to help others. That golden rule – “Give and it will be given unto you” is so true and so very effective.

Thank you so much for your time. I wish all reading this great success in your path. Keep going and don’t give up!

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Amazon Books by Daniel Dieterle - https://www.amazon.com/stores/Daniel-W.-Dieterle/author/B00M8YU0YM