When I joined nCircle as a security researcher in 2006, ASPL 117 had just been released. I missed the ASPL-100 release celebration, which included custom sweatshirts, but there was still one unclaimed shirt in the office and I brought it home, my first piece of company swag. That shirt still hangs in my closet all these years later.

For those of you that are unaware, ASPL, Advanced Security Profiling Language, is the name of the language that was originally used to write rules for IP360. These days, we tend to use Python, but ASPL still exists. The database that stores all of these rules was typically called ontology, but packages of ASPL rules were released via the ASPL package. Today, you may download the latest “ontology update”, but at heart, it is still just an ASPL package.

My first celebratory swag was a hockey jersey for the release of ASPL-200 in 2007. It hangs in my closet next to my “stolen” ASPL-100 shirt. Over the years, we’ve continued to celebrate the occasional milestone release including ASPL-900 in August, 2020.

Today, however, we’re announcing a huge milestone. Soon, ASPL-1000 will be released. That’s right! We move to 4-digit numbers. The part that blows my mind is that I’ve been a part of this team for 883 releases. We went from nCircle to Tripwire to Tripwire, a Belden Brand to Tripwire by HelpSystems. We went from VERT, a team focused on content for IP360, to TACTIC, a team producing content for a half-dozen products, working on cutting-edge research, speaking at conferences, and contributing to the global security community. I went from the junior member of the team to the senior manager. When I started with the company, people said make sure you stay 3-5 years before you move to a (Read more...)