Getting Started
whoami
I’m Cede (Conor), currently as of May 2026, a Tier 1 SOC analyst. The whole goal of this site is for me to post blogs, projects and CTF’s to document my journey.
This is mainly for myself and to evidence and document my learning journey, with my main interests being:
- Passing my OSCP.
- Learning about electronics/Hardware Hacking.
- Progressing my skills in CTF’s and Reverse Engineering.
To me, this feels very broad so the content may end up more focused over time.
Scattered Knowledge.
Up until now, my learning within cyber has been very scattered, I’ve put time into a large quantity of different topics from writing malware, reverse engineering, programming game engines and attemtping (Failing at) microsoldering. It has been difficult to find a specific focus which a lot of people online will tell you is essential.
My CTF Journey started around 19 years old with Bandit (OverTheWire) and PicoCTF, where during this I landed my first IT based role for an MSP who actually ended up putting me off both working IT and cyber, this lasted almost 10 years and I may post further in the future regarding exactly what happened as this I does not represent the experience I’ve had since in the industry.
My interest never truly faded after I left the IT Support role, with time spent more on programming and artistic endevours taking the front seat, during this time i’ve programmed basic 2D game engines using libraries such as SFML, exploring pre-made engines such as unity & unreal enigine and exploring 3D and 2D art using Blender & Photoshop. This stuff was fun, learning to integrate assets I had made with game engines & time spent modding/adding content to other games but the Cyber element slowly itched its way back under my skin.
Back on track.
After a few years I ended up taking a leap and moved away from my home town in order to persue university in a completely unrelated course as at the time I was just craving change, from this I made new friends, spent some time in the Cyber Security Society and ended up exactly where I needed to be, a CTF hosted by the uni where the random Team was with came 2nd place, the feeling of competing in a room with multiple teams was amazing and I was hooked.
That evening, after scouting the HackTheBox discord, I discovered an advertisement for a public CTF team, SinisterScript, this was full of likeminded people of different levels and eventually, this team became a group of good friends. We competed extensively and spent many evenings doing CTF’s with and against eachother (RIP HTB Battlegrounds) which helped grow my skills and drive my passion.
Foot in the door.
It wasn’t even a year after the University CTF until I reached out to the the organizers for a mentorship they advertised on their discord, where I recieved invaluble advice and ended up leading me to be hired into a SOC Role. This taught me that putting yourself out there, even if you have knowledge and experience, is essential, as at the end of the day, even if you know your stuff, if no one knows you exist, you’re invisible.
As a SOC, I learned a lot of the Blue side of things, triaging alerts, the fundementals of XDR, EDR and SIEM, with the most valuble knowledge coming from utilizing different tools to corrolate behavior to gain an understanding of what is happening. Sure, the SIEM may trigger an alert from a source IP, but can you track this down and use EDR tools to figure out exactly what was happening at the time? this is what made the difference between guesswork and certainty.
Next Steps.
As I’ve come to the end of my first year within SOC and proven myself at the company, there are discussions on moving me towards Red Teaming, which truly is where i’d rather be. This will include the OSCP certification, shadowing the Red Team and building my skills to really hit the ground running within the role.
Alongside this, I’ve a keen interest in Console Modding/Hardware hacking, where I’m learning basic electronics and soldering skills, this is more for fun though.
My goals to complete by this time next year are:
- Pass the OSCP.
- Complete my list of Windows based Boxes.
- Succesfully mod my Xbox 360 & PS3.
I will break down each of these goals in further posts/projects here on v0id.run,
Thanks for reading & Happy hacking!
- Cede