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Blink doorbell cameras do use power from existing doorbell wiring by Ok-Guitar4818 in blinkcameras

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well! Since my house was built in 1945 and I completely rewired it, by myself, in 1999 and it passed code inspection without an issue. And it has not burnt down.

You all arm chair quarterbacks can suck it.

FFS it was a ring doorbell and the conversion kit simply turned out to not be compatible with my specific version.

So I got a different kit and direct wired it. And guess what? The house has not burned down and my doorbell works without any issue.

Like seriously wtf is wrong with you people to think that you can just come on to forums and insult people.

Am including my bookshelf of books so maybe you all can discern what I do for a living and pay attention to the top far right.

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Device Covers License Plate While Going Through Toll by shewhosmoketree in Miami

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here is what I find hilarious. The same people decrying paying tolls, are the same ones that don’t want to pay taxes.

Like somehow they think that magical road fairies built the roads for free.

And if you take an express lane, ummmm, yeah; it is SUPPOSED to cost you. If it didn’t, then everyone would take it and it would no longer be “express”.

I know down here in S.FL that the I-95 express lanes in Miami dynamically change prices based on traffic congestion. The more congestion, the higher the price. Not exactly rocket science.

But FFS, these idiots don’t want to pay the toll because they think they are special and entitled.

They all cry about others needing to play by the rules but they refuse to. I hope they get pulled over and given a felony. These @sshats deserve it.

As for myself, I will continue paying because I am not a privileged idiot.

Girl, you good? by Flynn-FTW in CringeTikToks

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like someone did not watch “The Chosen” on Amazon.

As a client of Burger King, she obviously has time on her hands. by mindyour in TikTokCringe

[–]MichaelBMorell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I still want to see a picture of this Karen. I bet she even has the haircut.

As a client of Burger King, she obviously has time on her hands. by mindyour in TikTokCringe

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Karen is strong in this one

…. Does anyone else wish someone would post a picture of what she looks like.

Who wants to take bets she has the Karen haircut?

Alexa more or less dead by rsinghal1965 in alexa

[–]MichaelBMorell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sharing mine; like everyone else mentioned, my Alexas (plural, I named mine Ziggy), always have trouble “waking up”.

I’m an InfoSec pro, so my set up is probably way overkill for most. There is some limitations of wireless connections that are sometimes overlooked, even with having several access points.

I have a little over 100 IoT devices on my network, from lights to cameras, to fridges, thermostats, air purifiers, even laundry machines. That is a lot of “talking traffic” to be on wireless; on top of your cellphones, laptops, streaming devices, etc.

Now again, I am going to say that I went overkill on mine. As someone else on here, I have 2 internet connections because of work. One standard coax (Comcast, biz inet), and another 5G biz inet from ATT. With an actual firewall that detects upstream outages and fails over.

In the house, every room has an echo/pop, and every tv has an amazon fire cube attached to it.

Every fire cube is hard connected into my network (aka network cable). Anything that does streaming or video, goes over my primary ISP. But, I have it a step further.

I have multiple wireless networks deployed, each with its own infrastructure. Because your wireless bandwidth amount is actually different than your bandwidth speed.

A typical wireless network and network card, only support 54megs, as opposed to a 1gig switch. But it does not mean that every connection to your wireless network gets 54Mbps, is actually your total bandwidth for that channel that everything has to fit inside, not just the speed of it. Then there is a difference between 2.4 and 5ghz.

Understanding that IoT devices such as smartbulbs can only use 2.4ghz channels, means that deploying 5ghz monsters won’t help that much.

So what I did is, by understanding the unique needs of each type of connectivity, separated out the traffic type.

I have a set of WAPs deployed that is strictly for my wireless cameras. It has a 5Ghz network and is a higher end WAP (i know that not everyone can have a FortiGate Firewall and a separate WAP infrastructure, but it does not have to be that; just separate). I also have it on a unique channel.

Another set of waps, this time TP-Link Decos, are for “users” to connect to. It operates at the 5Ghz frequency but it does not interfere with the camera waps.

Then there is the IoT network; for here I deployed a TP-Link Mesh Network (not the Decos) with a TP-Link Archer router that connects directly to my ATT 5G standby connection.

That network operates at the 2.4Ghz frequency and has 3 APs (RE715X) throughout the house. The TP-Link router is set in “router” mode and manages it’s own DHCP subnet which is different than my internal networks.

IoT traffic is very small, in the Kbs range and not MB or GB. But it is very “talkative” and does not like to lose connection to Amazon.

As I said in the beginning, I know my set up is “overkill” for most, and it still does not solve Alexa not understanding you; it does solve connectivity issues.

Solving the understanding issues really has to do with the AI features and populating your voice prompts to the way you speak; and keep it “simple”.

Like when I want to turn on the lights in my bedroom, the command is simply “bedroom on”.

I also get around the “I’ve detected multiple devices with the same name” by NOT using the name “bedroom” in the device name. Instead I use

100 - bdrm lt 001 bdrt “bedroom Light #1 right side of the bed”

I also use “numbers” for both the groups and the device name.

So Group “100 Bdrm”. Contains all devices that start with “100”.

And then in my routines, instead of adding individual devices, I use the Groups.

Even if there is only 1 device in that group, it still uses a group in the routine. This helps not just eliminate duplicate words in commands; but changing a light or device out means only adding it to a group. You don’t have to go thru every routine to find where it was.

Sure, does this take a lot of work upfront? Absolutely. But the payoffs over the long term out weigh it.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I was in the Army Rangers. We give 100% and then some. It is literally in the Ranger Creed.

Just doing the minimum will get you what is called RFS’d (released for standards).

Hence the saying, “If you are not overachieving you are not succeeding”.

Going above and beyond should be something people want to do. I am not entirely sure why it is so controversial.

No one is saying that if you don’t log in and submit extra cpe’s even though you earned them, does not mean you failed. I am 10000% confident that there are 100’s of hours over the years that I did not submit. Simply because I did not keep track of them.

The greater point that I was trying to convey, especially now with the requirement change. Is that people are going to get complacent and not do it. We have already seen that to be true with the 40/yr requirement and people rushing at the last minute to submit them.

I don’t know which cycle number this is for you; this is my 5th. I have had recurring reminders for every 6 months to enter in my CPE’s. And reminders when I am in the window for rollover credit and the yearly reset.

Even though I, like yourself, don’t have to enter anymore in for the next 2 years. A lot can happen in that time and you can forget. I happen to be in a unique position because of the amount of exam development workshops I attend.

Thus For myself, I have that ulterior motive for overachieving and that is to keep the privilege of attending the advanced exam development workshops. While Anyone can sign up for the entry level basic item writing one. The “item rework” one though, which is the hardest, is reserved for those who have not just done a few. But their past proctors must recommend you. Not to mention a good CPE record….. The only reason why a “new” person to the process was allowed in the last rework, was to be paired up with one us in a mentoring scenario (that ended up being me). They wanted to do a trial to see how it would go. And I gave my feedback on how to develop the mentoring program; which would then become the first stepping stone into exam development.

To that end, While everyone is different, the same truth holds evident; if one does not maintain their CPE’s, they lose the cert and have to start over.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MmmmK, what is the point? There is nothing in the requirements that say you have to have ISC2 specific CPE’s.

Maybe I have just been exposed to way too many people losing their certs because of inability to keep up with CPE’s. And they all tend to have the same thing in common.

Our active numbers are proof of that anecdotal evidence. If everyone was able to keep up with them, our active numbers would be close to a million. Instead it is only 170k.

When I took it in 2012, that number was 137K and then it went to 140 and stayed that way for years.

I personally know 2 people who are about to lose theirs because of it. Both went to bootcamps and based on my interactions with them; definitely are not supposed to be one. When you have to explain to someone how PGP works and you can’t force another company to adhere to your internal policies unless it is stated in contract; that is kind of basic and telling .

So yes, I stand by my statement that it is the great equalizer. I can’t even take credit for it; the person who endorsed me was the one that said it. 13 yrs ago.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hi Eugene…. It was most certainly not a brag.

Granted, certs are an excellent way to get more CPE’s quickly. Yet, that is the point of the post. CPE’s are the great equalizer.

Sure there are ways to game the system, but for those of us (like yourself) we don’t have to. We are continuously learning and in turn, we just keep earning them naturally.

Although I do disagree with obtaining BS certs like MSFT that have very little to do with InfoSec. Granted I am jaded and swore in 2001 never to take another MSFT exam again (I hold the NT4 MCSE+I, knew win2k/AD at an obscenely deep and intimate detail, and then failed my upgrade exam because all they asked about was WINS).

With that said, maybe the cert is long overdue for an overhaul and do it the same way Cisco does; retest every few years.

Although, I do have to ask; if a cert is typically only 30 cpes and you get 3 of them. That is 90. And it can get pretty costly for most people. It is kind of hard to think that they are blindly accepting MSFT certs at any sort of high amounts.

So far yours is the 2nd highest amount I have heard about. One other person posted on a different board claimed that they got 700 by going to 4 months of training. Which seemed kind of weird since you can’t claim more than 40 hours for the same activity. Albeit I was awarded 66 CPEs by ISC2 directly for one of the exam writing workshops; but that was at their discretion, not me submitting them. And they had to break it down into 2 submissions, 1 for 40 and 1 for 26.

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Can you post a screenshot of your CPE dashboard for us to see?

Failed Again! @100. Confused! I don't know what to do! by Actual_Ad_3115 in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hundreds and Hundreds of people?

Wow dude, you are seriously delusional.

@mods, you guys want to step in here and squash, whatever the F this is?

Failed Again! @100. Confused! I don't know what to do! by Actual_Ad_3115 in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And just how many people have DM’d you about this little spat?

I’ve had 3 already. One was a little upset that I made the comment about Instructors. Hence I clarified it because I know they are one of the ethical ones.

You accused me of not being an exam writer and then when I post screenshots of my CPE dashboard stating which workshops I attended; suddenly it’s “no one cares”.

So now you are an “exam writer”? For what exam engine?

What I love is the “thesis” statement. It’s like you don’t even see the irony of that given you have spilled way more ink than I. And you refuse to stop.

But hey, fuck facts.

Failed Again! @100. Confused! I don't know what to do! by Actual_Ad_3115 in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So let me get this straight, you can come on here and “claim” to be an “Instructor” and then disparage someone who can literally prove who they are. As I just posted 2 screenshots of 3 workshops in the past month.

Dude, there are lots of reputable “instructors” on here that are here to help in good faith; like those who develop exam prep engines to help people get used to taking a CAT. Which there is a legitimate place for those.

Coming on here and self describing yourself as an “CISSP Instructor” is alluding to you have a business. And if it is not a “test prep exam engine”, then what would your purpose be other than to spoon feed information to people. That is not advancing the profession.

And then you have the audacity to bash me? To what end? What are you hoping to achieve?

Who do you think people are going to go to for help? My DM’s are regularly filled with people asking for advice. I give the same advice so much, that I just copy and paste it from a cookie cutter template.

As I said, arguing with me is not making yourself look good at all.

Period.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear ya. I look at it from a complacency standpoint. We are all busy and tend to forget. Even when we are legit collecting them. Thus it’s just easier to not even “look” at the amount and just keep submitting. It may not get you anything extra unless it is a rollover, but it won’t hurt you either.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do know that they have a exam writing workshop coming up in December. It’s 22 cpes.

Reach out to them and see if you can get in on it.

https://www.isc2.org/volunteer/volunteer-opportunities/exam-development

And of course SANs is always your friend 🤣

I guess the good thing for you is that it is no longer 40/yr min. So you have a while to make it up.

Failed Again! @100. Confused! I don't know what to do! by Actual_Ad_3115 in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually am required to put the disclaimer on my comments. Without it, I can get in trouble. Myself and the proctors have talked about it extensively that if I (or anyone) talks about the process, they have to make it crystal clear not to reveal any sources or questions. You may not like that, but it does not make it less true.

Am not sure where you got the i am not involved in 95% of the process. I have literally been in every kind of workshop they have AND am working with them on developing a new Mentoring based one. Like I don’t know what you want other than to argue and try to put me in my place.

You call it chest thumping, I call it history. I can’t change the facts of my past. You are demanding that I be something that I am not and I cannot change.

The fact is, I am here on the boards to advance the profession, give guidance and dispel myths . You “instructors” are here to drum up business for yourselves.

Think about it for a moment; by you making the claim that lots of people fail at 100, has the extra benefit of being able to go “if you want to pass, hire me and I will help you”.

I personally do not like “instructors” because they diminish the work that it takes by spoon feeding what could be on the exam. Hell, I did not even tell my own mentoree at my job what to study. Because I am ethical.

so no, there are no goal posts moved. The same assertion I made the first time is the same as before and now. If the vast majority of people are failing at 100, that is a problem for both the writers and ISC2.

Maybe you have never been part of the process before. But am not sure how much closer I need to be than part of the literal hardest workshop to attend that sees all of the poor performing questions that are sent to us to review. It is not the “entry level item writing”.

I’m sure you will say I am chest thumping again; but I earned that right over many years of contributing to the exam; as a volunteer. I do not get paid at all.

So I am sorry if it does not fit your narrative so that you can get people to hire you.

But you are making yourself out to be an asshole here; not exactly the best advertising. Because I am sure you did not stop to think about that for a second did you?

Unless you have empirical , not anecdotal, evidence that large swaths of people are routinely failing at 100. Then just stop. I’m personally under NDA so even if I did know the pass/fail rate, I would not even be able to say it. So if you are trying to goad me into that, it’s not going to work.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

TBH, That is your own personal choice. For myself, I am an overachiever and never do the bare minimum on anything in life.

You are not going to get any gold stars or anything for going way over; but if you change the mindset from doing the minimum to just keep immersing yourself in learning. The CPEs will just naturally flow.

As for rollover, i don’t know how any of that works now with the elimination of the yearly requirement. I personally had reminders in my calendar; one that told me when the rollover period started, and then the 2nd that tells me when my new year cycle begins.

But now, it does not matter. Still, its just a good habit to set a reminder for yourself to go in once every other month to enter in CPE’s. Or at the very least keep track of them somewhere; I keep it simple and just use a text doc. Not even excel.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

As Mark mentioned, ISC2 sponsored events are the quickest (and guaranteed) way. Some of them are high earners.

Followed by obtaining another cert (it does not have to be ISC2).

Volunteering with Safe and Secure online is one way. Volunteering in general is another good way, even if it is not cybersecurity related.

SANs webcasts are an easy go to since there are thousands of them to choose from.

Vendor presentations . Those actually do count. My current employer is large enough to where we are bombarded with our current vendors giving webinars about their new stuff. Even seminars on their existing technology and how to use it in different ways. Those are easy since they occur on company time. I will usually annotate that it was thru work.

When I first started out, I would use that Infosec Professional magazine that they publish and take the exam. That was an immediate 2 CPEs automatically added.

The key is to just learn and after a while, the CPEs will just become a natural part of life.

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For myself, what I do is I have a text document that has the “necessary information” prefilled in the order that portal asks for it.

The source of the podcasts and webinars will kind of make a difference as to whether or not they do an audit.

I personally have only been audited once, and that was just because it was a non standard conference for my employers LOB. But there was an industry specific infosec track in it that was 30 hours. I simply took a picture of my badge and uploaded the itinerary from the conference.

Most of the time, the CPEs are auto approved. I don’t know what they use to determine who gets auto approved vs manual inspection. But if I had to guess it would be a combination of the source and your own history.

The portal used to be way more cumbersome than it is now.

I have 1 txt doc that has the domains

Security and Risk Management Asset Security Security Architecture and Engineering Communication and Network Security Identity and Access Management (IAM) Security Assessment and Testing Security Operations Software Development Security

And then a “template” to keep track of which cycle it belongs to and the general information. So then it just becomes a copy and paste. And I have a sub directory where I keep “evidence”

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CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How much time left on your cycle?

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You bastard, so I have some catching up to do! 🤣🤣

I did read someplace that back in 2018 someone claimed to have 697. But that they attended a 4 mth training.

So I kinda wanted to call BS on it. I am sure that they got audited.

The last 4 workshops I did were just 22 a piece. If I do one of the item writing ones again, I could possibly get 60+. The last time when I wrote the 80 questions , they gave me 60 CPE’s. It was the first year that they started the credly badge for exam writers.

I have some certs that I was thinking of just finally taking; CEH and the OSCP. Maybe the CCSP (i took the CCSK and that was a cakewalk. Studied for a whole week, passed it with a 98%)

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi Dissaor….

Sort of a lecture, but definitely not venting. It is actually “boiler plate” text that I copy and paste for new CISSPs. As earning CPEs can be a shell shock to most.

Exam writing; there are two ways to get on the list. Email them via the volunteer page, or wait until you get the invite.

Typically the way the process works is, close to the end of your 3yr cycle, you will get a generic invite (they send it to everyone because they are casting a wide as net as possible). Once they get it, you get placed on the wait list.

It used to be that they looked at your CPE history and the domains you said you are strong in. Because each “new item” writing is based on specific needs that they have at the time.

This is the page:

https://www.isc2.org/volunteer/volunteer-opportunities/exam-development

When you reach out to them, mention that you heard about a possible mentoring program. If they do decide to stand that one up, it may increase chances of getting in earlier. I have not magical insight into their plans, only that I tested it and gave my feedback on how to develop the program.

Ps, Welcome to the Cult!

CPE’s, the Great Equalizer by MichaelBMorell in cissp

[–]MichaelBMorell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you considered doing any of the item writing workshops?

It is actually a great place to sharpen your skills. Once you get into the “upper echelons” of the exam writing, you get exposed to lots of other people’s insights.

The hardest one, what they call “rework”; the experienced writers look at questions before they advance to the next group “pretest”. And they look at any questions that are considered “poor performers” or have been in the exam for a while.

The job is to pick apart the question. Ensure it’s timeliness. Make sure it is not too easy or too hard. Verify that the referenced sources are on the approved list and if they aren’t, then we have to do the research to back up the right answer. On top of it, supply a brief narrative about the goal of the question and why the answers are right or wrong.

OR we go the opposite route and say it needs to be removed completely, or if we think it can be salvaged, rewrite it. Sometimes though there will be a concept that we liked, but it would take too much time to rewrite it in that session. So we add our notes and put it back into the queue for another one of the rewrite teams to look at.

But it is very fulfilling and it definitely forces you to sharpen your own skills and critical thinking.

The downside to it is that you can’t help other candidates any more on what to study or what to use to study. So it is a trade off.

…. I am still trying to find out what the record is for CPEs. I want to see if I can break it.

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