An extra set of brains to understand complexity. I embed, read the docs, sit with the experts, and come back with content that sounds like someone who actually understood the thing. Because the technical bits are usually the parts worth reading.
The third-party script breach that shook the world.
What the brief asked for: a post-mortem. What the audience actually needed: a compelling story.
Client
Retained · anonymised
Role
Research · Writing
Format
Long-form · 3,400 words
Language
English
§ 01 · The Problem
Explaining how a cyberattack actually happened, is always tricky. Post-mortem details can be scattered across public disclosures, infrastructure traces, legal documents, media coverage, and online archives. Sometimes, details contradict each other.
In the case of the British Airways, the cyberattack was a stealthy, sophisticated event. The team needed a write-up that read like it happened to someone who had actually been in the room.
§ 02 · Approach
.Baways.com reconstructs the attack in immersive storytelling that unfolds like a gripping documentary anyone can understand.
It explains how the attack could happen and which vulnerabilities played a role.
Surprise: even the name carried part of the story. The domain Baways.com was used by the attackers as part of the infrastructure to steal data.
Case Nº 02 · Cybersecurity SaaS · Content series · ~12,000 words
Client-side security: a four-part series.
Four pieces on the same problem, written from different angles: the attack, the mechanics, the blind spots, and the defence. The audience was technical but not uniform: security engineers, compliance officers, and developers all needed to find themselves in the same text.
Writing for a security audience means writing for people who will spot anything imprecise or oversimplified immediately. The challenge was to explain things clearly and earn the reader's trust on technical ground.
§ 02 · Approach
Each piece was researched from primary sources: CVEs, incident reports, technical documentation. I ran Puppeteer scripts to verify how third-party scripts actually behave at runtime. Because you can't write about what you don't understand. The writing had to work for a developer who knows their DOM and a compliance officer who doesn't, without talking down to either.
§ 03 · From the work
"Magecart isn't about faking login or payment pages. It's about the abuse of your real login and checkout pages that customers trust."
"The browser doesn't care what you approved in a pull request. It executes whatever it's told to execute."
"User trust is visual. When attackers control what renders in the browser, they're in control of user trust."
"Traditional server-side controls won't catch client-side breaches. They don't see how JavaScript behaves in the browser at runtime. They're looking in the wrong place."
"No inventory = no visibility = no control."
4
Pieces
~12k
Words total
3
Audiences served
1
Domain, learned from inside
Case Nº 03 · Crescendo CVO · Integrated editorial content system · NL
Translating educational complexity into accessible editorial content.
Client
Crescendo CVO
Role
Editorial strategy · Writing · Content
Format
Integrated content system
Language
NL
Crescendo CVO reaches people at a turning point: a career change, an unfinished degree or a new start. The communication had to work for readers with little time, sometimes limited language skills, and one concrete question: is this for me?
Lifelong learning is about people looking for direction in their work or in their lives. That's why testimonials work so well. I turned institutional language into stories that touch people: sometimes personal, sometimes professional, but almost always at a turning point.
The work included testimonials, press releases, blog posts and social media content.
Crescendo CVO trekt mensen aan die op een keerpunt staan en nadenken over nieuwe kansen op de arbeidsmarkt of die verder willen studeren. Vaak zijn dat mensen met weinig tijd of nieuwkomers met een beperkte taalvaardigheid. De vraag waar zij mee zitten is wel dezelfde: is deze opleiding iets voor mij?
Ik maak teksten leesbaarder en toegankelijker door institutionele teksten om te zetten naar verhalen die mensen herkennen. Levenslang leren gaat over mensen die een richting geven aan hun persoonlijke en professionele ontwikkeling. Daarom zijn testimonials zo sterk. Soms waren dat persoonlijke verhalen; soms professionele, maar vaak ging het om een keerpunt in het leven.
Het werk omvatte getuigenissen, persberichten, blogposts en sociale media.
I listen to one or two teams or experts at a time and read the source material to write copy that respects the reader's intelligence.
Expert content can sound like it was written from the next building over. Most likely because nobody actually listened closely enough to the people working on the thing.
I'm tech-curious. Yes, I work with AI tools AND find them genuinely useful.
“She knows her stuff.”
$ cat about.yml
name:Hilde Decrem
based_in:Antwerp-Brussels, BE
languages:[EN, NL, FR]
trained_as:linguist
now:knowledge translator
tools:
- editor
- terminal
- Claude (as collaborator)
- p5.js (occasionally)
availability:
ongoing:available for content roles in knowledge-driven orgs
one_off:open
email:info@hildedecrem.com
feedback:"She knows her stuff."
§ Manifesto
01Not write a word I do not understand.·
02Spend more time with the product or expert than with the brief.·
