Did I Do Thaaat? How not to “whoopsie” production away, a humanist risk-management-based approach.

We’ve all been there—a mistyped command, an unintended click, a moment of bad judgment, or just a house cat in the wrong place at the wrong time—and suddenly, something goes awfully wrong.

Whether it’s an accidental table drop on a critical db, an unintended network outage, or a whole filesystem going bye-bye, the consequences can be dire. Your heart rate skyrockets, you’re drenched in sweat, and it’s possibly even worse if it’s a red team engagement in someone else’s environment (yikes).

Human error is an inevitable part of working with live environments. But while mistakes are unavoidable, their impact doesn’t have to be catastrophic—and many can be prevented entirely.

This talk covers both how to avoid mistakes and how to minimize their impact when they do occur, through a risk management approach.

We’ll discuss practical tactics to reduce both the likelihood and impact of human error in our critical environments, addressing aspects from both the technical (keep the cat away) and the mental (be humble, it CAN happen to you).

We’ll also explore how to quickly learn from our mistakes (and others’), and ensure that knowledge is passed on to our colleagues and especially to juniors—so we all get better together, All while fostering a culture where learning from mistakes is encouraged rather than feared, and where taking pride in our hard-earned lessons is the norm.

This talk is for everyone—from students to managers, Blue Teamers to Red Teamers alike.