2025 has been a wild year. Looking back, I’ve accomplished a lot more than I thought I would. Figured I’d write up a quick reflection on everything that happened this year.
Graduation and Academic Achievements
I finally graduated from SETU Carlow with a 1:1 honours degree in Cybercrime and IT Security. Four years of college done and dusted. It’s been a journey, but I’m pretty happy with how it all turned out.
My final year project ended up doing way better than I expected. It won two awards:
- SETU Carlow Open Source Award - My college’s own open source award
- SunLife Academic Award - This one was really cool because I got to display and showcase my project to a panel of industry professionals. Getting that kind of feedback and recognition was amazing.
New Job at ReliaQuest
I landed a new job working for ReliaQuest, which has been awesome so far. The onboarding process was intense - they sent me to Tampa for 3 weeks for onboarding. I got to meet some amazing people there, which was honestly one of the highlights of the year. Working with such a talented team has been a great learning experience.
Projects and Development
I finally published my C2 framework visualizer project, which I’d been working on for a while. It’s always satisfying to get a project out there and see people actually use it.
I’m also almost finished with a GraphQL VS Code extension for interpolation. It’s been a fun side project that’s taught me a lot about VS Code extension development. Should be wrapping that up soon.
Personal Changes
I made a pretty big switch this year - I moved from Arch Linux to Pop OS. I know, I know, moving away from Arch supremacy. But honestly, Pop OS has been great. Sometimes you just want things to work without having to configure every single detail. The stability has been nice, and I can still customize everything I need.
I also got myself a Lily58 split keyboard, which has been a massive learning curve. Going from a regular keyboard to a split ortholinear layout took some serious adjustment. My typing speed took a hit at first, but I’m finally getting back to where I was. The ergonomics are worth it though - my wrists are thanking me.
CTF and Team Ireland
This year I competed for Team Ireland at ECSC 2025 in Warsaw. We placed 10th, which is the highest we’ve ever placed. That’s pretty exciting! The competition was tough, but it was great to see how much we’ve improved as a team.
I also had the opportunity to speak at this year’s NCSC conference as part of Team Ireland alongside Samuel (team vice captain) and Mark Lane (founder of ZeroDays, who also helps run the team). Getting to present and share our experiences was an incredible experience.
For next year, we’re hoping to train even harder and push for that top 5 placement. The competition keeps getting better, so we’ll need to step up our game.
Looking Forward
2025 has been a year of growth - both professionally and personally. I’ve learned a lot, met amazing people, and accomplished things I didn’t think were possible at the start of the year.
Here’s to 2026 and whatever challenges come next. Time to keep pushing forward and see what we can achieve.
Thanks for reading, and happy new year!