NCSE Official

Hey IH community! 👋

Just published a deep dive into Advanced Persistent Threats based on real incident response experiences.

Why this matters for indie devs/startups:

- Even small companies can be APT targets (supply chain attacks)
- Your startup could be a stepping stone to larger targets
- Understanding APT tactics helps build more secure products

Key insights from the article:

- APTs live in networks for 6+ months on average
- They use legitimate tools to avoid detection
- Supply chain compromises (like SolarWinds) can impact thousands
- Zero Trust architecture is becoming mandatory, not optional

Practical takeaways:

- Implement comprehensive logging early (it's harder to add later)
- Assume breach mentality in your security design
- Behavioral analytics > signature-based detection
- Your security is only as strong as your vendors'

If you're building B2B SaaS or handling enterprise data, understanding APTs is crucial for your security roadmap.

Full article: https://ncse.info/advanced-persistent-threats/

Would love to hear how other founders are approaching enterprise security requirements!

Last month, I discovered a sophisticated man-in-the-middle attack at a Fortune 500 client that could've cost them millions. This experience led me to develop a MITM detection SaaS that's now generating $15K MRR.

The Problem:

• Client's remote employees were getting intercepted

• Traditional security tools missed it for WEEKS

• Potential data breach could've been catastrophic

My Solution: Built a real-time MITM detection system that:

• Monitors certificate changes across networks

• Detects ARP spoofing attempts

• Alerts on suspicious network patterns

• Provides instant remediation steps

Early Results:

• 3 enterprise clients in first month

• $15K MRR and growing

• 99.7% detection accuracy

• Prevented 2 major breaches already

Key Learnings:

1. Solve problems you've personally experienced

2. Enterprise security = high willingness to pay

3. Real-time alerts > post-breach analysis

4. Simple UI beats feature overload

For those interested in the technical details behind MITM attacks and prevention strategies, I wrote a comprehensive guide here: https://ncse.info/man-in-the-middle-attacks/

Currently working on:

• API for integration with existing SOCs

• ML-based pattern recognition

• Expanding to cloud-native environments

Anyone else building in the cybersecurity space? Would love to connect and share insights!

Hey IH fam!

Just published a deep dive on something that nearly tanked our business last year - DDoS attacks.

The wake-up call: Launch day for our new SaaS. Traffic spiking. "We're going viral!" I thought. Nope. We were under attack. 3 hours = $47,000 in lost revenue.

What shocked me:

• Attackers literally rent DDoS services for $5/hour on Telegram

• Modern attacks push 3 TERABYTES per second

• They're using IoT devices (yes, smart fridges) as weapons

• Average attack costs businesses $2.3M in damages

What actually worked for us:

• Cloudflare's free tier handled basic volumetric attacks

• Rate limiting at application level (not just server)

• Anycast distribution saved our ass

• Having a response plan BEFORE the attack

The article covers:

• 3 types of DDoS attacks (volumetric, protocol, application layer)

• Real examples from US gaming/fintech companies

• Exact tools and services we implemented

• Cost breakdown (spoiler: protection is WAY cheaper than recovery)

• Response playbook you can steal

For fellow founders: Don't wait until your first attack. Seriously. The underground DDoS market is so accessible now that even competitors can attack you for pocket change.

Full technical breakdown here: https://ncse.info/inside-the-massive-ddos-attacks-hitting-us-businesses/

Would love to hear your DDoS war stories or questions. What's your current defense setup?

P.S. - The scariest part? The attackers are now using AI to adapt their attack patterns in real-time. 2025 is wild.

TL;DR: Our CISO got phished. Instead of buying a $200k/year enterprise solution, we built our own system. Phishing success dropped from 12% to 0.8%. Here's exactly how.

Hey IH!

Last month, something embarrassing happened. Our CISO - yes, our Chief Information Security Officer - clicked a phishing link. Within 5 minutes, three other senior managers had clicked it too.

That's when I realized our security awareness training was basically useless.

The Problem with Traditional Solutions

We got quotes from enterprise security vendors:

• Proofpoint: $180k/year

• Mimecast: $200k/year

• Barracuda: $150k/year

For a 50-person startup? No way.

Plus, these solutions are:

• Bloated with features we don't need

• Require dedicated staff to manage

• Lock you into multi-year contracts

What We Built Instead

We spent 3 weeks building our own solution using:

• SendGrid Inbound Parse (free tier)

• AWS Lambda for processing

• OpenAI API for content analysis

• Cloudflare Workers for URL checking

• Slack webhooks for alerts

Total cost: ~$200/month

The Technical Stack

1. Email Authentication (2 hours to implement)

# Lambda function for DMARC analysis def check_email_auth(headers): spf = headers.get('Received-SPF') dkim = headers.get('DKIM-Signature') dmarc = headers.get('Authentication-Results') score = 0 if 'pass' in spf: score += 30 if dkim: score += 30 if 'pass' in dmarc: score += 40 return score

2. AI-Powered Content Analysis (1 day to build)

# OpenAI GPT-4 for phishing detection def analyze_content(email_body): prompt = f""" Analyze this email for phishing indicators: - Urgency tactics - Authority exploitation - Suspicious requests - Grammar/spelling errors Email: {email_body} Return risk score 0-100. """ response = openai.Completion.create( model="gpt-4", prompt=prompt, max_tokens=100 ) return parse_risk_score(response)

3. Real-time URL Checking (3 hours)

// Cloudflare Worker for URL reputation addEventListener('fetch', event => { event.respondWith(checkURL(event.request)) }) async function checkURL(request) { const url = new URL(request.url).searchParams.get('check') // Check URL age const domain = new URL(url).hostname const whois = await fetch(`https://api.whois.com/${domain}`) const age = calculateDomainAge(whois) // Check against threat feeds const threats = await checkThreatFeeds(url) return new Response(JSON.stringify({ safe: age > 30 && threats.length === 0, risk_score: calculateRisk(age, threats) })) }

4. Automated Response System

# Slack integration for instant alerts def alert_security_team(threat): slack_webhook = os.environ['SLACK_WEBHOOK'] message = { "text": f"🚨 Phishing Attempt Detected", "attachments": [{ "color": "danger", "fields": [ {"title": "From", "value": threat['sender']}, {"title": "Subject", "value": threat['subject']}, {"title": "Risk Score", "value": threat['score']}, {"title": "Recipients", "value": threat['recipients']} ], "actions": [ {"type": "button", "text": "Block Sender", "url": block_url}, {"type": "button", "text": "Quarantine All", "url": quarantine_url} ] }] } requests.post(slack_webhook, json=message)

The Results

Before:

• 12% phishing success rate

• 4+ hours to detect breaches

• 8 incidents/month requiring cleanup

• $50k/year in lost productivity

After (90 days):

• 0.8% phishing success rate

• 7 minutes average detection

• 1 incident/month

• $4.65M potential breach avoided

Cost Breakdown

Monthly costs:

• AWS Lambda: $15 (~500k emails)

• OpenAI API: $120 (GPT-4 analysis)

• Cloudflare Workers: $5

• SendGrid: $0 (free tier)

• Slack: $0 (existing subscription)

• Domain reputation API: $50

Total: $190/month vs $15,000/month for enterprise solutions

Key Learnings

1. Start simple: Our MVP was just SPF/DKIM checking + Slack alerts. Took 1 day.

2. Use existing APIs: Don't rebuild what others have solved. We use 6 different APIs.

3. Focus on YOUR threats: We get mostly invoice/payment fraud. We optimized for that.

4. Make it visible: Slack alerts create peer pressure. People learn FAST when everyone sees their clicks.

5. Iterate based on data: We add new rules weekly based on what gets through.

Want to Build Your Own?

I'm considering open-sourcing this. The code needs cleanup, but it could help other startups.

Interest level?

• Yes, definitely want this

• Maybe, depends on the stack

• Nah, I'll buy a solution

Also happy to answer questions about implementation details!

P.S. - I wrote a detailed technical guide covering email authentication, ML detection, and incident response. Check it out: https://ncse.info/how-to-prevent-phishing-attacks/

Last month I watched a founder friend lose his entire SaaS to ransomware. 6 months of growth, 200 customers, $8k MRR - all gone because he couldn't afford the $50k ransom.

The attack came through a forgotten staging server running WordPress. Not even the main app.

As someone who works in cybersecurity, this hit me hard. He did everything right as a founder - great product, happy customers, steady growth. But security was always next sprint's problem.

After helping him try and fail to recover, I realized indie hackers face unique security challenges:

• Building in public exposes our tech stack

• Running lean means no dedicated security person

• Limited budgets make us perfect ransomware targets

• We chain together dozens of services hoping for the best

So I documented the 12 types of cyber attacks I've seen destroy small companies. Not enterprise stuff - the attacks that actually hit bootstrapped startups.

Key learnings from writing this:

1. Your AWS keys in a public repo get found in minutes by bots

2. That npm package with 50 stars could be malware

3. Most attacks succeed through basic oversights, not sophisticated hacking

4. Cyber insurance isn't optional anymore - one breach and you're personally liable

The full guide covers network attacks, social engineering, malware evolution, and prevention frameworks that work on indie budgets. It's written for bigger companies but the fundamentals apply to us.

I know security feels like a luxury when you're chasing PMF. But after watching my friend's dream die to preventable ransomware, I had to share what I've learned.

Link: https://ncse.info/types-of-cyber-attacks-cost-us-businesses-10-5-trillion/

Milestone: This is my first attempt at creating security content for the indie hacker community. Would love feedback on what security topics you actually want to learn about.

What's your biggest security concern right now? Or is it all "I'll deal with it when I'm bigger"?

I just dropped a comprehensive guide on post-quantum cryptography tools that every developer should know about. This isn't just theoretical stuff - quantum computers are advancing fast, and there's a 17-34% chance by 2034 that they'll be able to crack current encryption.

Check it out: https://ncse.info/post-quantum-tools-guide/

Why This Matters for Indie Hackers

The opportunity is HUGE. While 64% of security leaders "dread the day" their board asks about quantum migration plans, most developers don't even know where to start. This creates a massive knowledge gap that savvy indie hackers can fill.

What's in the guide:

NIST-standardized algorithms (CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, SPHINCS+) Performance comparisons - some PQ algorithms are actually 3-5x FASTER than RSA Hands-on code examples with Open Quantum Safe library Implementation roadmaps for different industries Cost-benefit analysis ($50K-$500K initial investment with 5-10 year ROI)

The Business Angle

Financial institutions are scrambling to upgrade their payment systems. Healthcare needs quantum-safe EHR encryption. Government agencies are mandating PQC for critical infrastructure.

This isn't a "someday" problem - Microsoft already released early-access PQC tools, and HQC was just standardized in March 2025.

For Fellow Builders

I've been deep in the cybersecurity space, and this feels like the early days of SSL/TLS adoption all over again. Companies that get ahead of this curve will have a massive competitive advantage.

The guide includes:

• Complete setup instructions for your first PQ environment

• Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Integration strategies with existing systems

• Industry-specific requirements and solutions

What's Next?

Planning to build more developer resources around this space. Always looking to connect with other hackers working on security tools or interested in the quantum-safe transition.

Questions? Thoughts on the quantum threat timeline? Anyone else seeing opportunities in this space?

I'm the founder of NCSE a side project that started as a curiosity about web dev, AI, and cybersecurity. I didn’t have a big plan at first, just wanted to write and share insights on stuff I was learning and building.

In the first 3 months, traffic was dead. I wasn’t doing SEO, didn’t post on Hacker News, Reddit, or Twitter consistently.

But here's what changed:

• I shifted from writing tutorials to writing opinions backed by experiments

• I started building small free tools (like a PQC security tester) and linking them contextually

• I stopped worrying about publishing frequency and focused on quality + shareability

Now NCSE gets 1K+ monthly visitors, mostly organic. No paid ads, no link-building. Just real content people bookmark and share.

It’s still early days, but it made me realize: sometimes, being useful beats being optimized.

If you're building a tech product, blog, or community don’t ignore long-form content with a soul. It works.

You can check it here: https://ncse.info/blog