Projects

The Daily Decrypt (Jan 2024)
A cybersecurity news podcast that simplifies complex cybersecurity concepts into short, digestible episodes with humor and education, hosted on AWS Lightsail and WordPress.

• Created the podcast to fill a gap in short-form cybersecurity news, aiming to educate beginners and keep professionals up-to-date with the latest cybersecurity developments without long-form content.
• Launched the podcast to stay informed about industry news and deepen my understanding of cybersecurity breaches and attacks while improving my public speaking skills.
• Learned cloud hosting and security by managing the podcast on AWS Lightsail and securing WordPress, with a focus on Identity and Access Management for contributors.
• Integrated automation using n8n hosted on an Unraid server and OpenAI APIs to streamline content creation, generating show notes and bullet points from news articles to enhance episode preparation.
• Implemented SSL/TLS certificates and security hardening on WordPress installation, demonstrating practical cloud security skills.

Guest Lecturer - Paul Sawyier Public Library (Nov 2023)
Guest security lecturer and advisor to the technology educator, presenting on topics such as The Dark Web and Artificial Intelligence.

• Provided accessible, easy-to-understand explanations of the dark web and AI to help elderly community members better understand emerging technologies.
• Delivered actionable advice on preventing identity theft and password reuse to help attendees protect themselves from common cyber threats.
• Engaged with the elderly community to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks, offering practical steps for safeguarding personal information.
• Discussed the potential impacts of artificial intelligence, addressing both valid concerns and reasons for optimism, tailored to the needs of a vulnerable audience.
• Advised the library's technology educator on relevant security topics to enhance community learning and improve digital literacy.

Cloud Resume Challenge (Oct 2023)
The first step to becoming a cloud engineer is to build and host your resume in the cloud.

• Resume is created using JSON Schema and automatically converted to HTML, Markdown, and PDF using Python
• The HTML version of the resume is hosted on AWS S3 and served via CloudFront, with domain registered on Route53
• Implemented CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to automatically build and deploy resume updates on push to main branch.
• Configured CloudFront distribution with custom SSL certificate and cache invalidation for optimal performance and security.
• Built Python-based resume generator supporting multiple output formats (HTML, PDF, Markdown) from single YAML source.

Home Network Security Monitoring Project (Jan 2023)
Implemented a comprehensive network monitoring solution in my home using Security Onion.

• Configured a forward node to capture and forward all network packets for thorough monitoring.
• Utilized Proxmox for virtualization of the manager/search node, efficiently managing and analyzing network data.
• Custom-tuned Suricata detection rules to align with the specific network environment and usage patterns of my home.
• Integrated endpoint log monitoring, including devices across Windows, Linux, and mobile platforms.
• Developed new network detections to identify and mitigate common threats, enhancing home network security.

Security Operations Automation Framework (Jan 2024)
Led development of internal automation tool that transformed security operations workflows at Arctic Wolf.

• Gathered requirements from stakeholders across multiple teams to ensure tool addressed real operational pain points.
• Designed modular Python architecture allowing easy extension and maintenance of automation components.
• Implemented comprehensive unit test suite achieving 90%+ code coverage for reliability in production.
• Documented architecture and usage patterns enabling team members to contribute and extend functionality.
• Measured and reported 2000+ hours annual time savings, demonstrating clear business value to leadership.