Blog

A little over a year ago I started at CAN in the role of Senior Consultant Information Security. The role demands a lot of travel and gives me the chance to visit many different organizations, where I can help identify gaps in ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and NEN 7510 compliance, when performing internal audit. I also helped some organization in implementing an ISMS according to ISO 27001. Reflection In the past couple of months I have reflected on whether the role is the right fit and what I want to do for a living. ...

As some of you know, a couple of years ago our son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). During this process the characteristics of autism triggered a sense of recognition, not just regarding my son, but also for myself. We talked about this topic for a very long time and I have started the process, mid 2022, of diagnosing if I also might have ASD. Due to the long waiting list in (mental) healthcare and the specialized nature of diagnosing ASD in adults in the Netherlands the process started in April 2023, with the formal diagnoses Summer 2023. First the general practitioner transferred me for diagnoses of ADD or ADHD. For me that did not resonate well. It took some convincing and finding the right organization for me to get a transferral to them. ...

Although I joined Trustforce (in May of 2024) with the best intentions and high expectations, it became clear over the course of the year that the position was not the right fit for me. The nature of the projects and roles in outsourcing did not align with my professional interests and long-term goals. While I greatly appreciated the welcoming and supportive team environment, we mutually agreed that it was in the best interest of both parties to end the collaboration. ...

Another year and a another certificate to pursue. This time round a addition to my CISSP certificate, trying to achieve CCSP. According to ISC2 a nice combination that is in demand. This are my experiences and opinions. Course & Preparation In preparation I bought the set of books earlier this year. Just to get a feel of the course material. And lo and behold, it is, a bit expected, quite similar to CISSP, a nice overlap in domains and it seems slightly easier. The type of questions and chosen language is the same. This is quite tough. ...

Sometimes a opportunity presents itself and I would be stupid not to jump on it and change direction once more. In the last year I have learned a lot, from the effort it took to achieve my CISSP status to the uncertainties that being a freelancer brings and also I learned a lot on what I like and do not like. Downsides I encountered Let me start with the downsides, trying to get any assignment is tough. There are a lot of recruiters out there, they all claim to have the best opportunity for me. However a lot of times the role does not fit into my skill set at all. The requirements for the role are not even close to my skill set or are not for a role I am looking for. Next the majority claims to want to have a personal connection with the candidate. Like they are my best friend. Sadly I am the product they have to sell. And with ghosting me when the opportunity does not move forward is more and more the “norm”, if this is how one treats it’s “friends”, damn what is the world changing into? The, for me, common decency to call back or give a response should be the norm, not the exception. ...

This post tells my journey into becoming a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), not just the happy flow, also my doubts and struggles. The last couple of months were very tough and demanding of not only myself, but also of my family. Without their support I would not have been able to even start this journey, let alone bring it to the finish. This post is (currently) one of my most elaborate ones, buckle up, it is a read. ...

After working for an employer for almost 13 years, I am taking the big step to continue as a freelancer under Nefkens ICT. Over the past period I have learned a lot in various IT related fields and I have grown as a person, from senior iOS Developer to Private Cloud Architect. I have also experienced growth in the field of leadership, setting priorities even better and bring together both short and long-term goals. ...

The last post of this year. In the past years (June 2018 - December 2022) I have worked for Pro Warehouse, with great joy and lots of challenges and opportunities. In this reasonable long period I have been given increasing responsibilities, started in a Apple Platform Developer role in which I coded the Erase Install wrapper application. My first real purpose MacOS application I developed, a very nice project to do. This work grew into from being responsible for the project-management of the in-house developed FileMaker Pro application to designing, building and maintaining the Pro Platform. The Pro Platform hosts the FileMaker Pro application and all services and servers to display the data you now see when visiting the Pro Warehouse Sites. ...

Documenting Network Upgrade Creating a nice graph of the home lab What is next? Documenting Documenting, always the part most engineers loath. However it is proven to be a life saver. For me the home lab was becoming increasingly more complex, my better half, righteously, was more and more concerned that in case something happens to me or I’m not available for whatever reason, she did not know, where, how and what to do when it is relating to the devices at home. ...

Introduction Finding the right template IDE Migration Template changes Deployment Conclusion Introduction When I moved from Digital Ocean to Strato I also moved into a Static Site solution with Publii. The application had benefits at the time. A little over a year ago I had some troubles with the default free template, with a update of that template the site broke. At the time no real time left to investigate properly in the why and how to solve. So I went for the “easy” solution in purchasing another template. Too busy to spend my downtime on my site. Priorities… After 6 months I realized that the use of the template was with a small caveat, namely the updates of the template were only possible inside a window of 6 months. Again no time to move in a different direction, got myself a “update” for another 6 months. These 6 months are almost up. And now I do have some time and I am willing to see what else is out there. After some investigation online I made the decision to do a deep dive into using Hugo. What I saw I liked, a lot! Being able to code my site, have it under VCS, and written in Go. Definitely a winner! ...