Happy Birthday to Objective-See
› we made it to two years!
3/19/2017
Today is our 2nd birthday! So far it's been an incredible ride :) And cliche as it sounds, Objective-See couldn't have done it without you.
Humble Beginnings
Objective-See was launched (born) on March 19th 2015 at well known cyber-security/hacker conference CanSecWest, where I gave a presentation, titled "DLL Hijacking' on OS X? #@%& Yeah!"
At the end of the talk, I introduced Objective-See and released the first tool 'Dylib Hijack Scanner' (DHS) which could automatically uncover vulnerable binaries, or detect if you had been hijacked:
Today; 2 Years Old
Fast forward to today... what has Objective-See accomplished in two short years? I think a lot :)
I've published 10 free macOS security tools, which have been:
- cumulatively downloaded over 1/4 of a million times
- mentioned in forbes, cnn, and even made the front page of slashdot
- managed to usurp the US government (well, the Oversight Committee...on Google, for a short while)
Probably the most exciting thing though, is that (thanks to you, the users!) Objective-See recently won the #1 spot on Tools Watch's "2016 Top Security Tools"
This success and recognition is both humbling and inspiring. So much so, I recently took the (scary) plunge of scaling back at my traditional 9-5 job (goodbye benefits & healthcare) so that I could dedicate more time and energy to pursuing my passion of Objective-See! While I'm completely confident that this was the right decision, as all the content is 100% free, Objective-See has no revenue nor VC funding. If you're stoked on Objective-See and want to support my efforts or simply give Objective-See a wonderful birthday gift, I've just launched a Patreon page:
Patreon is an amazing site that allows people from around the world to support creators (such as yours truly!) while allowing the creator to share unique rewards with supporters. #winwin If you'd like more details, their website answers the question, "What Is Patreon?" quite well.
Mahalo in advance for even considering supporting!!
Tomorrow and Beyond
So what's next? Lot's! Now, with some extra time on my hands, I plan to:
- continue to improve existing tools (look for new releases of RansomWhere? and OverSight)
- create brand new (open-source?) tools, that hopefully provide viable alternatives to paid commercial products
- continue to report macOS vulnerabilities to Apple, with the goal of making Macs more secure
- blog about all things related to macOS security (malware, vulnerabilities, OS internals)