2025 Year Review

Published: January 3, 2026
URL: https://toranm.me/post/2026-01-03-2025-year-review/

2025 has been a mixed year for me. The Good times were pretty good, but the bad times were so bad.

On the positive side, switching to working full time as a researcher has been a great decision. I was able to focus on research topics and progress in these projects. Times were busy, but I enjoyed the work and the challenges it brought.

I had my debut as a chaos event organizer at the GPN, where I continued my tradition of organizing the helpers at the Unifest, to be now part of the GPN Trollhöhle. I am pretty happy with the team and the feedback we got. Still, there is a lot to improve for this year.

Also related to chaos, was my talk on DOI at the MRMCD. This was my second, it was ok, but looking back I now see a lot of room for improvement. I need to work on my talk pipeline and get more practice in giving talks. I notice that it's hard for me to formulate my thoughts in a way that makes the main points clear to the audience. The attention does not go to the words where I want it to go and so it is hard to get the message across. I need to work on this.

I got to travel a bit more, including Switzerland, London, Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. I went to fewer BSides than 2024.

In the CTF department, I had a good year. I participated in fewer CTFs than 2024, but I was able to focus on quality over quantity. I made a writeup on the LakeCTF quals pls respond (https://toranm.me/post/2025-11-29-lakectf-pls-respond/) challenge.

The bad times were pretty rough. I lost three close family members this year, including my dad. This is something that will stay with me for a long time, and I am still processing it. I am grateful for the time I had with them and the memories we shared, I will never forget them. My dad was a big influence in my life, and I miss him dearly. He was always supportive of my endeavors, and I know he would be proud of what I am doing.