Garrett Rapport

 I've done a fair share of web scraping to gather sports data, and some automated testing and validation. I also happen to sit next to the team that manages application security and bot detection at work. I have a few guidelines for responsibly scraping, avoiding the dreaded block/sinkhole, and being a good netizen. I've generally used Python, so I name the libraries I use there, but it's not too hard to find the equivalent in your language of choice. 1. Set your headers correctly.      Headers are the easiest way to detect a bot. If you don't change your headers, you literally tell the web server that you're using headless Chrome or Python Requests. A large amount of traffic from a single IP with suspect looking headers is a quick route to the block list, or at least a partial block or request sinkhole.      My strategy has always been to get the headers from hitting the site from my browser. In Chrome, you can get that information by viewing your req...

    Maybe I'm a little late on commenting about the Twitter stuff, but I wanted to write down some thoughts about it. The main thing I'm concerned with is giving kids/teens a place to explore their interest in technology with appropriate guidance. The teens and young adults responsible for the hack on Twitter weren't overwhelmingly skilled with technology, but it's clear they were willing to learn what they needed. That type of self taught technical ability needs to be recognized and put into constructive learning. That constructive learning needs to include time to discuss the legal and ethical implications of technology and hacking.     I count myself as lucky to have grown up with a computer (and eventually several) in my house. I think I broke the computer hundreds of times, and most of the time I didn't need (a lot) of help from my dad to fix it. But even with that, as my skills developed, there was little advice or guidance on ethics in technology. My parents ...

I'll start with a little bit about me. I'm interested in technology, data analytics and sports. I work in cyber security, and I'm always looking to learn. My favorite sports teams are the Lakers, Angels and Rams. You can probably tell from the teams, but I grew up in Southern California. I live in Texas now, and no, I don't mind the heat. I live on the northwest side of San Antonio with my fiancee Stef and our dog June. I wanted to start a blog to get some of my thoughts down on my personal projects, current cyber security events or whatever else comes to mind. Some of these posts will probably just be information I don't think belongs on the readme of a project I'm working on. Anyway, that's my quick introduction.