A technical blog post is an article focused on the fine details of some type of technology or technical operation. For example, in ethical hacking many people write technical write-ups where they tell you exactly the steps they took to hack into a certain machine or exploit a certain vulnerability. Another example is if you write threat intelligence reports for your company and you need to outline the new details of a vulnerability. These blog posts are very valuable to people that work at the operational level of a company where they need to implement a certain piece of technology, configure something or even understand a new threat/vulnerability that may be relevant to their company. This is important in technical fields like cybersecurity and if you’re someone that makes blog posts or cyber threat intelligence reports it’s important that you understand how to write good technical articles.
1) Have a clear purpose
It’s important that you make it clear in the title what the blog post is about and to what level of detail it will be written. For example, if you’re making a blog posts about a new vulnerability that was released, have that vulnerability and it’s associated CVE number in the post so that people that are looking for your content can find it easily. It’s especially important in technical posts because there are so many different versions of software that you need to make sure that your post is not confused with other similar posts and readers can find exactly what they are looking for.
2) Take things step by step
Often times people will be looking to recreate what you’re doing in these blog posts so it’s good to make it easy to follow along. If you can include step by step instructions with screenshots it makes it much easier for readers to understand what you’re doing and follow along with it. You may also want to include possible errors that may occur if the readers have a different OS, software version etc so that your article can be applicable to as many readers as possible and help people troubleshoot those problems.
3) Add Videos
If possible incorporate videos into your post. Videos are good for explaining complex topics or simply allows readers to follow along much easier than having to stop and read something. Most platforms allow you to embed videos directly into the post so that people can watch it without having to leave your website, so you can still retain your readers. Here’s an example:
4) Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)
An IOC is anything that indicates that something is malicious, this can anything from an IP address, email address, domain name, filenames, phone numbers etc. If you’re writing about a new type of threat for example one of the things that analysts will want to know is what IOCs are associated with this threat that can be used to detect it in their companies’ network. If they can find a filename that is associated with that threat they can scan their network for any sign of it, IOCs are very important in both preventing and detecting threats in a company so it’s good to have a section for it in your blog posts.
5) Software updates
Another thing people look for in technical blog posts is the fix to the solution. After reading up about a new vulnerability the next thing people will look for is how to fix it. It’s good to have a section that shows people where to find the software update/patch that will fix the issue or give some recommendations on how to defend against it if there isn’t a patch or the company is unable to apply the patch for whatever reason.
6) Link to credible sources
Make sure you get your information from good sources, especially when you’re talking about anything that you can’t show proof for yourself. So, if you’re talking about something like IOCs or best mitigation mechanisms for a vulnerability, make sure you show where you are getting this information from so people can’t say that you are giving misinformation.
7) Update your posts
Sometimes information can become outdated as security researchers continue to make new findings, especially in the first few weeks after a vulnerability is disclosed so it’s worthwhile to pay attention to the news for a few weeks after a post and update information as new things are found. Companies take months to fix certain vulnerabilities and when they find your post you want them to find the most up to date and accurate information.