2024 in Review and What's Next in 2025

Summary:

In this solo episode, Timothy De Block takes a step back to reflect on the journey of Exploring Information Security in 2024 and look ahead to what's coming in 2025. Timothy shares insights into the podcast's growth, highlights from the past year, and the direction for the future, including new initiatives and exciting changes.

Key Topics Covered:

  • Podcast Growth and Feedback
    Timothy discusses the steady growth of the podcast, with the introduction of new platforms like Spotify and Amazon Podcasts, and a significant expansion into YouTube. He emphasizes the importance of feedback and encourages listeners to connect and rate the podcast.

  • The Podcast’s Focus and Vision
    Reflecting on the podcast's evolution, Timothy talks about how the content has expanded beyond traditional technical topics to cover security awareness, human behavior, and broader cybersecurity challenges. He also mentions the plan to increase blog posts and share security awareness content for listeners to use within their own companies.

  • Live Podcasting and Future Engagement
    Timothy highlights the success of the live podcast with the ILF crew and shares plans for more live sessions, with opportunities for audience interaction and sponsor exposure. He expresses his excitement to continue experimenting with live recordings and expanding the podcast’s reach.

  • Vendor Insights and Sponsored Content
    Discussing the rise in vendor interest, Timothy talks about how the podcast will feature discussions with vendors about the problems they solve in the cybersecurity space. He shares his commitment to providing meaningful content and avoiding any “sales pitch” style conversations, ensuring that vendor content is both educational and valuable to listeners.

  • ShowMe Con and Networking Opportunities
    Timothy promotes ShowMe Con, a conference where he will be speaking and attending. He shares how it offers a unique mix of hacker and business vibes, and he encourages listeners to participate in the conference or attend as speakers for valuable exposure and networking.

  • Plans for 2025
    Looking to the future, Timothy discusses his goals for 2025, including more live podcasting, increased blog content, and deeper engagement with the audience. He also shares his excitement for upcoming content, including vendor conversations and security awareness-focused material.

  • Personal Reflections and Motivations
    Timothy closes with a personal note, reflecting on his 23 years in IT and his growth in the security field. He talks about his passion for teaching and mentoring, particularly in the realm of security awareness. He also humorously discusses his New Year’s resolution to take January off from drinking, highlighting his commitment to personal growth.

Links and Resources:

Contact Information:

Leave a comment below or reach out via the contact form on the site, email timothy.deblock[@]exploresec[.]com, or reach out on LinkedIn.

Check out our services page and reach out if you see any services that fit your needs.

Social Media Links:

[RSS Feed] [iTunes] [LinkedIn][YouTube]


The Exploring Information Security Relaunch

Summary:

In this return episode of the Exploring Information Security podcast, I talk about the relaunch of the podcast. What I’m looking to accomplish and how people can help out. You check out the blog post I did on the relaunch.

Key Topics:

  • Happy to be back

  • Career transition

  • Service offerings

  • How people can help out.

Guest Information:

Timothy De Block, Founder of Exploring Information Security

Resources and Mentions:

Contact Information:

Reach out via the contact form on the site, email [timothy.deblock[@]exploresec[.]com, or reach out on LinkedIn.

Social Media Links:

[RSS Feed] [iTunes] [LinkedIn]


ColaSec News November 2023

Reboot….initiated

This is an experiment and the first step to a potential return of the Exploring Information Security podcast. The past several months I’ve been working on adding content to the website. Now I’m looking to start podcasting again in 2023. As part of that I was looking at making the news section of the ColaSec user group apart of the podcasting rotation.

ColaSec is a local user meeting based out of Columbia, SC. When the pandemic hit the group moved to online which meant I got to be apart of the group again. Post pandemic we’re still meeting in person but we’ve now expanded to having an online presence along with the in-person meetup. One of the things we do as part of the intro to the meetup is talk about the news. If you’re a fan of Top Gear it’s a bit like that. We even do a Cool Wall sometimes.

In this segment we talk about the below security news topics:

Send feedback to timothy[.]deblock[@]gmail[.]com or fill out the contact form below. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, just make sure to include that you’re a listener of the podcast.


State of the podcast for 2018

In this end of the year podcast, I discuss the state of the podcast for 2018 and what’s ahead for 2019.

2018 was a good year. I made some format changes that I’m really happy with. I picked up some new audio equipment. I resolved my recording process (I think). I’m not a big statistics guy. I don’t really care if two people or 200 people listen. I’m just happy to have some really great conversations with people and contribute back to the community.

2018 Statistics

Here’s a really interesting graph of my RSS Subscribers.

2019-01-03 20_26_15-Window.png

No, I don’t have 40,000 listeners. Some of that is inflated by other podcast directories ripping my feed. What I look for is a steady increase in subscribers, which did happen by the end of the year. Albeit with a weird dip in November (broken feed, maybe).

This is from iTunes Connect (Beta).

2019-01-03 20_28_11-Window.png

I can’t do a yearly review of podcast stats. Instead here’s the peek month of October for my iTunes listening habits. Looking through all the months, I can make some inferences about my audience. The hacking/red team content is the most popular. With a 25-28% consumption rate, the conference podcasts are turned off by most people before the end.

What’s ahead for 2019

I’ve got a new recording setup that will hopefully make producing a podcast much easier. I’ve setup a Twitch channel for gaming and potentially recording EIS episodes on. Follow for notifications on when I go live. I’ll be trying my first EIS episode Monday, January 7, 2019, at 8:30 p.m. CT. I’ve also turned what was my attempt at a GamerSec Discord channel into the Exploring Information Security channel. Here you can interact with us while record (or on Twitch). Join other people interesting in the podcast. Game with other infosec professionals.

Thank you for being a listener of the podcast. I am refreshed from my month off and energized for what’s ahead in 2019.

The Final Episode

In this final edition of the Exploring Information Security podcast, I talk about my reasons for stopping production on episodes.

This isn’t the easiest thing to do. Now that I’m writing the podcast post after recording and editing the podcast, I have a sense of relief. For the last month plus, I’ve tried to decide whether or not to shut down the podcast. The fact that it took this long to record a final episode tells me that it was time. I wrote about my reasoning in a blog post on the main page. This may or may not be the end. That largely depends on if someone would like to pick up the podcast and produce it themselves. I’d love to guide and mentor someone on the journey.

The podcast has been beneficial to me and the many people who have reached out providing appreciative feedback. I’d love to see it continue. I’m also content that this is the end of the podcast. I will be at BSides Nashville shooting pictures and very likely be at DEFCON manning the Social Engineering door. Come see high or reach out to me on social media (@TimothyDeBlock) or email (timothy[.]deblock[@]gmail[.]com).