Chris Beckman's Dev Blog — Security Engineering and Technology

Idempotence in math means f(f(x)) = f(x). In infrastructure and automation we mean “safe to run again.” That gap leads to some surprising truths.

There’s a moment in too many infrastructure projects where your deploy is blocked on one question: where do the secrets live? This post covers SOPS + age: encrypting secrets directly in git without needing a secrets manager. No servers, no cloud KMS accounts, no chicken-and-egg problem.

AI coding assistants are like an extra gear on a bicycle: they help you go faster but don’t replace the rider. This post explores the hidden patterns, from backwards compatibility obsession to test regression and security gaps, and how to stay in control.

Security teams often assume that if one significant risk is acceptable, then multiple similar risks must also be acceptable. I call this the static risk fallacy. This post explores how it shows up across security decisions, why it’s different from normalization of deviance, and how to make aggregate exposure visible.

A former colleague asked me to provide advice to high school students about LLMs. Here’s what I told them about navigating this transformative moment in technology while avoiding the hype and protecting their future.