HomeAuthor InterviewsInterview with Andrew Pease

Interview with Andrew Pease

Andrew Pease is the author of Threat Hunting with Elastic Stack, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?

Andrew: Cyber Threat Intelligence

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Andrew: A lot of people that are just getting into threat analysis always want to know “how do I start”. People point them to various books, but these are expert books written for experts. I wanted to approach a book that would take someone from zero knowledge and work them up. Also, I didn’t want to just focus on the raw technology, I wanted to tell a story about how to think critically about your data and your processes for analyzing it.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Andrew: The challenges I faced were to create and validate a repeatable process to build an Elastic ecosystem and perform data analysis that didn’t require any previous skills or knowledge.

Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Andrew: I think that Elastic will continue to be a powerful search platform for, not just security-relevant data, but all data.

Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Andrew: I think that the differentiators would be that this book has no previous knowledge requirement. Additionally, it walks readers through how to think about data collection and analysis and builds a fully functioning platform that will allow readers to practice what they’re seeing in the book for themselves.

Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?

Andrew: It’s not about a right or wrong answer, critically think about data and explore what the data is telling you.

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Andrew: Focus on the basics before trying to tackle the exciting part of cyber. Understand how the technology works before trying to understand how a hacker is using it – it will make their actions stand out more when you know what is expected.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Andrew: No

Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Andrew: The Packt team was amazing. Patient, understanding, and very helpful. I couldn’t have done it without them.

Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?

Andrew: The outline that the Packt team shared was fantastic. Big concepts, then chapters, then sections, and then sub-sections – it made the book writing process approachable.

Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share

Andrew: Github – @peasead, Twitter – @andythevariable

You can find Andrew’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

Threat Hunting with Elastic Stack – Available on Amazon.com