Cybersecurity Instructor

Teaching Cybersecurity In 2021, I was beginning to get a little burnt out with the operational side of cybersecurity and started looking for a change. Through some network contacts, I was able to start working at INE as a Cybersecurity Instructor. Since I started there, I’ve created a new learning path and associated certification called the Enterprise Defense Administrator and eEDA, respectively. At the time, there was a lack of training and certification options that were geared towards fundamental defensive security engineering - proper configuration of systems and networks to be resilient against attacks. I took that opportunity to design and build the training for the EDA and working with an Instructional Designer, built out the certification exam which includes not just multiple choice questions, but also a hands-on lab environment. The hands-on component to the exam ensures that students must prove they can actually perform the tasks necessary for an entry-level security administrator in an organization. Since then, I’ve continued to develop training for existing industry-standard certifications including CompTIA’s Security+ and Cisco’s Cybersecurity Associate (formally known as CyberOps Associate) certifications. In addition, I’ve built numerous hands-on labs with written and video walkthroughs to ensure that students can get the hands-on practice they need. A list of courses I’ve created can be found here and more information the eEDA here

Cybersecurity Manager

Network Admin to Cybersecurity Manager Lexington Medical Center was the start to my “official” cybersecurity career. I’d always been “security-minded” in all the administrative work I did - ensuring systems were configured in secure manners as they were deployed and when performing routine work on them as well, but LMC led to my first fulltime cybersecurity role. I started at the hospital as primarily the Exchange email administrator, as well as the primary administrator for the web filtering and email filtering systems - so already a security-focused role. Two of my first projects at LMC were to upgrade the Exchange servers to a new version with minimal downtime, and to replace both the web and email filtering systems with new technology. (Since those technologies may still be in place there, I’m not going to mention what they are). In addition, I designed and built a custom PowerShell GUI for the helpdesk team to use for simple AD account management tasks (renames, password changes, role modifications, etc - all before more automated methods were implemented). After working on the server admin team for about 2-3 years, I transitioned into the expanding cybersecurity team and was responsible for day-to-day operations of security logging systems, the email/web filtering systems (which the cybersec team took ownership of), as well as escalated security-related tickets, incident response, and threat hunting. In my time in that role, I implemented an MDM system, established multifactor authentication (and migrated from RSA SecurID to another platform), and managed Azure cloud security policies. As the team continued to grow, I proposed to senior leadership a new role of Cybersecurity Manager, since at the time everyone worked directly for the InfoSec Director and the cyber side of the team needed a bit more focus and attention. After that process completed, I started my new role as the Cybersecurity Manager with 4 analysts reporting directly to me. In that role, I continued some of my previous responsibilities, but also added on policy design and updates, and designing a new security awareness program for the organization.

Network Administrator

Law Firm Network Admin I started at Rogers Townsend & Thomas (RTT) in a hybrid role in their Charlotte office. The Charlotte office was originally a different lar firm that merged with RTT just prior to me joining, so the IT team at that office was relatively small - a manager and two technicians (including me). This was a classic ‘jack of all trades’ role where I was responsible for daily helpdesk staff as well as overseeing the entire server and network infrastructure. During my time in the Charlotte office, I gained hands-on experience with several new technologies including HP switches and Dell servers and storage systems. One particular instance of troubleshooting I remember occured when the entire network suddenly went down with essentially no traffic reaching any destination. The switches that were in place at the time were a bit limited in their management capabilities, so the troubleshooting was reduced to a bit of trial and error. After about 20 minutes, I was able to narrow down the issue to a copier that someone had unplugged from the network for some reason, but someone else “reconnected it”. In reality, they took the ethernet cable end that was plugged into the copier, and plugged it into the network jack nearby creating a fun little switching loop (these switches had no protection against this). After the merger between offices was complete, the Charlotte AD and Exchange infrastructure was merged with the the main office infrastructure in Columbia, SC. During a multi-hour email outage, I was able to prove my troubleshooting skills to the new IT Director (who had been with the firm for only a couple of weeks) and have the Exchange environment back online in short order. The issue ended up being drives that were full due to excessive logs that hadn’t been properly removed by the backup processes. Other projects I was a part of with RTT included a large phone infrastructure replacement, where we transitioned from an older Toshiba phone system to a more modern Cisco system. We worked on-site with Cisco experts from CDW to deploy and configure the system across multiple offices in both North and South Carolina. In addition, I planned and orchestrated a full datacenter migration from an on-premise datacenter in the main office to a colocation facility in downtown Columbia. The move was completed with only minor issues that were quickly resolved, and was finished with all systems back online ahead of schedule.

Network Administrator

Helpdesk & Network Admin I started my professional IT career working at a small family-owned MSP in Charlotte, NC. Primarily, this role consisted of answering helpdesk calls for several clients, including a large multi-state advertising firm and the franchise owner for a multi-state restaurant. In addition to answering calls and tickets through email, I was also the primary contact/administrator for a regional real estate firm that employed several hundred employees. This role wasn’t just helpdesk activities though, as part of the responsibilies also including managing a centralized datacenter that many clients used as their remote infrastructure, connecting in with various thin-clients and RDP sessions through VPN connections. The network consisted mainly of SonicWALL devices with VPN connections back to STM’s datacenter, and in some cases, between the offices of a few clients. I was also responsible for managing multiple Exchange and Active Directory deployments and traveling to various client sites as needed for either trouble tickets or routine maintenance, including onboarding clients in multiple states. With this being my first exposure to a professional IT position, it taught me a lot about not only systems and network administration, but also helped reinforce additional customer service and other soft skills that I had started building up in previous retail positions. The few years I spent in this role helped set the stage for the rest of my IT/cybersecurity career.