Last year after Tekthing ended, I started taking a long, hard look at my career. Who is my audience? Where do my passions align? What kind of brand do I want to build? What do I want to be known for in my role as a content creator?

Moving away from San Francisco gave me some clarity into those questions, so thats been my main goal. Aligning my core values and beliefs with my job, and not trying to appeal to a certain norm or general consensus for a community.

I've been working on surrounding my online life with positive influences and role models, and joining communities of like minded individuals - folks that share the same messaging or that are working towards similar goals. The creative space has given me that. I'm happier.

I'm pulling myself away from the cybersecurity / infosec community and focusing on the people that need what this community preaches: consumers need to know how security works, and I can educate people on these topics. Cybersecurity folks aren't my audience.

I'm grateful that I've learned so much from this online community over the past decade and it's enlightened me to a point where I feel that I can use the education I've received to share it freely with the world and continue to build upon it. I'm a continual learner.

But I feel like the infosec industry is incredibly toxic, with folks preying upon the generosity of others or using folks openness as an advantage over others. I've seen people steal each other's work and give no credit.

I've seen harassers treated as rockstars even after they've been outed because "they do good work". I've seen docciers and private Facebook groups where people doxx each other or post women's non consentual porn.

The industry as a whole, myself included, has been working on changing this cultural perception. By implementing code of conducts, by outing known abusers, by reporting doxxing. I've tried to align myself with folks that empathize and sympathize with each other.

But how do you know that the people you're aligning yourself with are also holding true to those same values behind closed doors? How do you trust someone you've only met at a con?

Taking that a step further: as an influencer or a content creator, how do you know folks aren't just using you for your audience or your network or outlet?
Who can you trust?
The political deception and intrigue is exhausting and it feels like this industry feeds on it.

Like, just because you're a hacker doesn't mean you have to act like you've got some special secrets.
What's wrong with being transparent and honest and being the same person online as you are offline?

There are very few folks in the infosec industry who have continually shown me who they are online as well as offline - and its the same person. Friends. And I'd rather have a few close friends than 400 that I don't really know.

So I unfollowed almost everyone from that community. I honestly don't know who I can trust and who I can't. And as a youtuber, I don't want to be "canceled" for following the wrong person. Point blank. I gotta protect myself and my closest friends / fam.

My content won't change. I'm continuing to educate people on security and privacy topics. I continue to share alerts about important vulns or research. But I'm a journalist and a content creator first. I'm a hacker second.

My choice to distance myself from the infosec community started happening quite a long time ago. I just haven't spoken up about it. And if anything, it's given me a chance to view the community from a different side. And there are some toxic AF individuals.

I hope the infosec community matures. Ill be watching from a cautious socially acceptable distance and keeping a toe in the water so I can continue bringing good security practices to people that need it.
Now, back to my regular schedule of videos.

TLDR to bring a bit of humor to this thread: I feel like I'm watching a political drama on Netflix and I'm more of a SciFi kinda gal my crazy schedule ain't giving me enough time to figure out all these plot holes. Be straight with me or we can't play together!