An approach to security that resonates

About two years ago, while wandering around the corner of the metaverse that is Decentraland, I met Charles D. .

Or rather, his avatar.

At the time, he was experimenting with building an NFT art gallery, after becoming somewhat disillusioned with banking and diving into blockchain and crypto instead.

We got to chatting about decentralization, tokens, problems with the current iteration of the metaverse, and so on, and I minted an NFT of my book cover for Charles to hang on the walls of his gallery.

He informed me that implementing Decentraland buildings was glitchy and complicated, so I bought an equally useless Sandbox land token instead. We kept in touch for a while and then went our separate ways, as you do on the Internet.

Fast-forward twenty-four months, and Charles got back in touch again. He was no longer displaying virtual art on virtual walls, having moved on to founding a software auditing and security company called Resonance Security.

This time we had a deeper and more productive discussion. Charles has spent the last two years engaging with the blockchain and cybersecurity space, across a wide selection of blockchains, some of which I’ve not even looked at in detail myself. We found a common ground in our desire to overcome the prioritization problems faced by companies when it comes to securing their products, especially for blockchain (lack of finances, lack of time, and lack of expertise being the main culprits).

Our discussion culminated in a proposal for a collaboration from him, which I have accepted.

And so, for the foreseeable future, I will be writing a couple of articles or posts a month with the help of Resonance Security. We should be examining all sorts of security issues — some from a general perspective, but there will also be plenty of deep dives into specific technology areas.

The over-arching concept is that computer and information security should be considered holistically rather than piecemeal. There are an awful lot of tools and processes out there for making your smart contracts and software more secure, but they’re scattered across the Internet like flotsam on a beach after a storm. Charles has already made significant inroads in pulling this all together in a simple and understandable manner, and I’m happy to help him with that mission.

So what are the lessons learned here?

1. Security is not a band-aid. It’s a mindset
2. Collaborations do not arise through one unsolicited direct message; they’re forged over time

And finally:

3. The metaverse may suck, but on rare occasions, it can be useful.

Look out for more articles in the future!

#blockchaingandalf