I started doing these retrospectives 3 years ago in my first year of independence. I reckon they're a good thing for everyone to do if not in written form then at least mentally to look back on your achievements of the year. They're a great way of reflecting on success (and indeed, on failures) and they also help explain why we all feel so damn tired by the end of the year!
Here's my 2018 highlights, starting with travel:
Travel"Oh yeah, I'm totally gonna travel less this year" - me every single year
In reality, my travel ended up looking like this:
That's the same number as last year, 4 more days and another 8,000km. On the other hand, it's 12 less cities and 1 less country and the main reason for that is I've been trying to cram less into trips. I've also been travelling with family far more so whilst those 140 days equate to 38% of my year, there were 14 days in Hawaii, 10 days at the Aussie snow, 11 days in Texas and 17 days in Canada where I wasn't flying solo. That's 52 days where it wasn't just a lonely slog so I'm pretty happy about that.
Flight wise, App in the Air captured things in a nice visual fashion:
That's up 15,000km, 17 hours and 3 flights from last year. So yes, travel went up but I also did a bunch ofremote workshops which helped keep that down, as well sending Scott Helme to run in-person ones that contributed to keeping me on Aussie soil.
BloggingI actually got a bit of a surprise when I pulled the list of my most popular blog posts for 2018:
The surprise was that after the home page, the most popular page hit on my site was the one about Online Spambot , a post I published in August 2017. I guess it's maintained its traction due it being referenced in the HIBP description and there being a huge number of people finding themselves pwned. In fact, I'm sure that's why the next 3 blog posts are up there too because they're all from similar incidents (number 6 in that list was also from 2017).
If I'm honest though, my favourite post of the year was the one I published earlier this week on New Year's Eve - 10 Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals . I love this post. I love the reaction it's had. I love that based on so much of the positive feedback I've had it might actually improve people's lives in away I don't think any previous post has before. Who knows, maybe this is something I'll even write more about in 2019 if there's an appetite.
The sponsorship model continued strongly too. It's been resoundingly well-received by both browsers to the site and the sponsors themselves and I've already booked 2019 out until August.
SpeakingGeez, where to start... Probably withmy 2018 events page which lists everything I did of a public nature. What it doesn't do is list all the private events which pretty dramatically increases that list. Of the ones I can talk about, they included:
Microsoft in Copenhagen:
Thanks @troyhunt , fun and interesting talk in copenhagen today #happyaussieday #infosec #haveibeenpwned pic.twitter.com/vrNQNb6Po5
― Finn Strand (@finnstrand) January 26, 2018MVP Summit in Seattle:
This is my first time hearing @troyhunt speak, he is giving a talk called {Hack Your Career}, and this is great info and extremely well delivered. #MVPBuzz #MVPSummit pic.twitter.com/P3hd15Sd5m
― Richard Hay (@WinObs) March 4, 2018Ascend in Vegas:
Enjoying a keynote by @troyhunt at @episerver Ascend. #epidev #security #emvpbuzz pic.twitter.com/6MFRK3c0mC
― Henrik Fransas (@HenrikFransas) March 12, 2018CRN Pipeline in Melbourne:
“This is like a mob shakedown.” CRN Pipeline 2018 speaker Troy Hunt discusses the extent to which breached data is compromised and resold to users on the web. #CRNpipeline @troyhunt pic.twitter.com/J3msdhCNEX
― CRN (@CRN_au) April 19, 2018CRN Pipeline in Sydney:
@haveibeenpwned creator and security expert Troy Hunt tells #crnpipeline about how he was anonymously contacted by a data trader who had access to 1.3bn Australian Red Cross Blood Service records, including his own. The huge breach made headlines around Australia. @troyhunt pic.twitter.com/OfBPLDlShB
― CRN (@CRN_au) May 3, 2018Loco Moco Sec in Hawaii:
@troyhunt had a great talk, he even used https://t.co/SKgRTcLW2e like a boss @LocoMocoSec pic.twitter.com/coOYwMY1ga
― Troy (@troyoholous) April 5, 2018Infosecurity EU in London:
Day 2 @Infosecurity Europe, @troyhunt talks about how only 2% of businesses are using free technology to protect their websites by CSP #infosec18 pic.twitter.com/0ANNUl6ybD
― Will Painter (@WillPainter_) June 6, 2018SSW in Sydney:
How safe is your #password ?! I hope you tuned into #NETUG tonight to find out from security expert @troyhunt !! A huge thank you to Troy for presenting for us tonight. If you missed out, never fear, I’m sure SSW TV will post the video in the coming week! pic.twitter.com/jtHlTyJ9l6
― SSW / SSW TV (@SSW_TV) July 25, 2018Cyber Edge in Sydney:
At #cyberedge and @troyhunt taking the stage. pic.twitter.com/bOv0fBXN44
― Chris Gatford (@ChrisGatford) July 26, 2018SailPoint in Sydney:
@troyhunt hard at work at #spnav18 pic.twitter.com/iAMVdNO79x
― Lance Haeden (@LHaeden) August 22, 2018API Days in Melbourne:
Troy Hunt @troyhunt speaking at his best, he shows that not all hackers come with hoodies and green command line screens, and how security is taken so lightly at even the bigger enterprises. #APIdaysAU pic.twitter.com/19lb65Xhkm
― Sagar Jani (@sagarajgmailco1) September 4, 2018Fortinet in Sydney:
@troyhunt doing an excellent rockstar presentation on stage at #FortiExpress - as an ex-employee of both Fortinet and TalkTalk, deeply enjoyed this. pic.twitter.com/mK1j8H6Vuy
― Dave “Shockeh” Knowles (@_DaveKnowles) September 5, 2018TECHpalooza on the Gold Coast:
We’ve got a password problem. @troyhunt is here to help. Using tools like 1Password and FaceID will help. #techplza @TECHpaloozaGC pic.twitter.com/e4HSzwyuxX
― Carl Hooker (@mrhooker) October 3, 2018Texas Cyber Summit in San Antonio:
Watching @troyhunt talking about Have I been pwned at @texas_cyber pic.twitter.com/F5zRMhHst6
― Joe Parker (@joesparker) October 12, 2018Dev Fest Weekend in Dallas:
Finally! @troyhunt ’s talk on security! #DevFestWeekend2018 pic.twitter.com/FfhXKDnjJA
― Chris Benard (@cbenard) October 13, 2018Sibos in Sydney:
#Sibos Big Issue Debate @troyhunt at Hacker: I have an objection to the thought that increasing security makes things harder. There are technologies that achieve both objectives. We need to help people understand that the technologies are there and use them effective. pic.twitter.com/XaYneE72fJ
― Sibos (@Sibos) October 23, 2018There were a bunch of NDCs to do, starting with London in Jan:
Our Emy Spjuth is currently at the NDC London conference listening to some high quality talks and enjoying the new knowledge. She says that the talk from Troy Hunt is just one example of all the great things she is learning today. #knowledge #tretton37 #ndclondon @troyhunt pic.twitter.com/2OIX12ZbvR
― tretton37 (@tretton37) January 18, 2018Then Oslo for NDC security:
Kicking #NDCSecurity off with @troyhunt @NDC_Conferences pic.twitter.com/ULzNtKjeqz
― Zo Rose (@5683Monkey) January 24, 2018My home on the Gold Coast in May:
Beautiful spot for @NDC_Conferences today :sunglasses: https://t.co/F7IKiLkvBE pic.twitter.com/0sYt13CVtF
― Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) May 15, 2018And then Oslo again in June (incidentally, seen here doing my new favourite talk "Everything is Cyber-Broken" with Scott):
Looking up to a hilariously funny closing session of #NDCOslo by @troyhunt and @Scott_Helme “Everything is Cyber-broken” @NDC_Conferences
[a view from the pit] pic.twitter.com/M22nSuJV2y ― Adi Shavit (@AdiShavit) June 15, 2018And Sydney in September:
It's time for @troyhunt at @NDC_Conferences Sydney and up on stage with him is @letsencrypt ! pic.twitter.com/JfqvsMkN17
― Scott Helme (@Scott_Helme) September 19, 2018Spending time at the Australian Cyber Security Centre here in Aus was also a wonderful experience:
@haveibeenpwned ’s @troyhunt speaking to ACSC staff about #databreaches . pic.twitter.com/FQfJOPb4OE
― Australian Cyber Security Centre (@CyberGovAU) August 10, 2018And just to top it off, a keynote appearance in Microsoft Connect (albeit recorded from Aus):
Busy day in the office :movie_camera: pic.twitter.com/qPWGwX8PE0
― Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) November 13, 2018And, yeah, I think that's all it was! Actually, it could have been much busier, I declined 76 events:
I do actually keep track of all these and as it turns out, that's just 1 more event than I declined in 2017. I'm surprised about how closely these 2 years have tracked to each other in so many ways.
Why No HTTPS?2018 was a great year for HTTPS. Looking at Scott's 2018 Alexa Top 1M analysis from August (his most recent 6-monthly publication), 52% of the world's top 1M sites are now served over HTTPS by default. On the one hand, we're only just past the half way point but on the other hand, it was only 31% a year earlier .
Because public shaming of poor security drives positive changes (a popular 2018 blog post that will get a lot of mileage for years to come), we made Why No HTTPS to call out the largest offenders both globally and per country:
The positive stories are the ones you don't see here; the ones that are no longer on the list. Site like the ABC in Australia , the Daily Mail in the UK and Roblox in the US . They're the largest sites in their respective countries to drop off the list and there have been many, many more in the same boat. I've actually had developers from many organisations reach out requesting that the list be refreshed just so their site drops off. Shaming works in powerful ways
HTTPS is EasyI didn't want to just shame organisations doing the wrong thing, I also wanted to help everyone get better at HTTPS. After all, HTTPS is easy, so I built HTTPS Is Easy :
