2014 - the infosec year in review - part 8

This is part 8 of an n-part blog series, discussing the things I found to be game changers in Infosec in 2014.

Item: Infosec Taylor Swift (@SwiftOnSecurity)

What is (or was) it?  An epic Twitter Parody account making fun of all things infosec from the point of view of a pop star.

Why it's significant? First off, because I like to laugh.  But seriously, using humor to communicate the usually dry topics of computer security is awesome.  I especially appreciate the attempts to create infosec themed parodies of Taylor Swift (and other popular) songs.

@SwiftOnSecurity covers Carlie Rae Jespen

@SwiftOnSecurity also educates on important technology topics.  Topics such as where you can find the 32 bit copies of programs on x64 versions of Windows, albeit in her witty tone.

@SwiftOnSecurity explains what SysWOW64 is

Another recent gem was this rant complaining about Microsoft's "fixing" "Program Files" for new x64 systems by adding parenthesis.  I actually think Microsoft missed an opportunity to do away with another folder name with spaces in it and instead chose to take the lazy way out.

@SwiftOnSecurity rants on Program Files

Finally, @SwiftOnSecurity does a great job of covering real infosec news... sort of.  A great example is this little gem about the recent South Korean nuclear plant hack that reminds us all of the dangers of using USB.

@SwiftOnSecurity covers the South Korean nuclear plant hack

Could it have been prevented? No way. Many in the infosec field take themselves way too seriously. An account like this needed to be created to take us down a notch or two.  @SwiftOnSecurity takes an entirely sarcastic and sassy approach to security - something that makes me smile on a nearly daily basis.

Stay tuned for more installments in the Infosec year in review.