About Jason E. Murray
Me:
I am a widower, father of two, technology pioneer, and lover of life. Everyday I work in some way to improve the lives of the people around me, the Internet, cyber security, and make the world a little bit better than I left it.
From the age of 10, I grew up in an online world, dialing into text-based BBSes, CompuServe, and AOL. It didn’t take long until my parents IBM PS2 and a dedicated phone line turned into a small-time WWIV BBS. I spent all my free-time learning about BBSes and what would soon become the public Internet.
Fast forward to 1993, a good friend of mine gave me a copy of Slackware Linux. Linux soon became the default operating system on all my personal computers. Over the years, I tried and used various distributions, from Debian, Gentoo, RedHat, Arch, Ubuntu, and more. This event is the turning point that started my journey to opensource evangelist and where I focused all of my training efforts on Linux and Internet-connected services.
In 1995 a small startup company, Concentric Research Information Systems (Now, XO Communications) focused on connecting BBSes and dialup Internet services, hired me in their customer support department. Within the first year, I rose to the ranks of Solaris systems administrator. I was part of a team in charge of dialup modems, radius, email, usenet, FTP, the BBS, Unix shell, and every other backend system and service we offered. We grew this company from dozens of people in the early years to over 5000 in the mid-2000s, branching out from dialup to broadband, analog to VoIP, BBSes to web hosting, ultimately building one of the few Tier-1 ISPs in the world. I am still humbled to have been a part of this chapter of early Internet pioneers.
I currently spend my professional days, working for Washington University in St. Louis as the Assistant Director and Architect of Digital Forensics and Incident Response. I lead a team of talented Security Analysts to defend the university from cyber security villains at one of the premier private universities in the world. I am grateful for the opportunity to support some of the most distinguished faculty, researchers, doctors, and most importantly students in the world.
My off-hours are spent with my family and friends enjoying life, raising my kids to be kind - compassionate and well educated, exploring the world, constantly evolving the next version of myself, backpacking and running local Missouri trails, and volunteering where I can to make a difference in peoples lives.
What I believe in:
- Empathy: Listen, recognize, respect, understand, and share the feelings of those around you.
- Science: When a majority of experts in their fields state facts, listen and trust them.
- Reason: Evaluate everything with logic based on education, experiences, and reliable science.
- Humanitarianism: We live in a world that depends on our neighbors, be kind to one another.
- Open Standards: A well-connected world requires open standards to inter-operate together.
- Education: An educated society makes better decisions.
- Health Care for All: The healthcare system should work for all people.
- Women’s Rights: All women are entitled to the same human rights as a man. (Yes, this include sexual and reproductive rights)
- Environment: There is only one planet, take care of it.
About the writings:
After working professionally in the technology field since 1995, this is my way of sharing the wisdom others have taught me. In addition, it serves as a central repository to document projects, tools, and topics I am interested in.
I model writings on this site after the “Today I Learned” concept, which are simple and to-the-point posts. Some days, it will be a quick command and its output, other days a more in-depth analysis on a particular topic.
Website Technology:
Hugo is the foundation of this website. Throughout the past 20+ years, this site has evolved through many different frameworks, from static HTML to dynamic CMS systems. It has been a lengthy endeavor to find a balance between elegant themes, ease of use, flexibility, and security.
Why Hugo?
- Security: There is no server-side software to install, no database to keep up to date, no PHP plugins to upgrade.
- Portability: The content of the site is written entirely in Markdown. Unlike CMS systems proprietary storage formats, Markdown is portable and will easily move to a new system in the future.
- Fast: Once Hugo generates the site content, the entire site is self-hosted in standard HTML and CSS. No databases or dynamic scripting languages are required.
- Themes: I have limited creative ability when it comes to website design. To fill this void, Hugo has a rich repository of themes; from simple designs for personal websites to complex responsive designs used by modern enterprises.
Technical Details:
- Hosting Provider: Digital Ocean VPS
- Operating System: Debian Linux
- Web Server: Nginx
- CDN Front End: CloudFlare
- DNS: CloudFlare and AWS Route 53
- Statistics: http://shell.jasonmurray.org/
- Status / Monitoring: https://status.jasonmurray.org/
This website is available through the TOR network at the following address:
trspv4gsa5irkrflbskyzwfo6vsj5h6i6zaelgc52hxmuoz6w6xpzbid.onion