About Michael
Michael is a practicing cybersecurity professional and currently a Security Engineer at Amazon Web Services on the Security Operations Team. Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Michael is also a Signal Officer in the United States Army Reserve
Previously, Michael was an information security consultant at Rendition InfoSec, LLC. Rendition is a consulting firm focusing on digital forensics, incident response, ransomware, and penetration testing.
Michael graduated from Augusta University (AU) with a Bachelors of Science degree in Applied Information Systems & Technology with a Minor in Military Science; As well as a Masters of Science in Information Security Management.
While at Augusta University, Michael established the first Cyber Defense Team comprised of students that went to regionals of the South Eastern Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. He also received a certificate from AU as an Information Assurance Defender. Michael also holds various industry certifications in information security.
Michael has presented at many conferences like The National Cyber Summit, TakeDownCon, Hacker Halted, and BSides Augusta. Michael has also participated in many Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions from Booz Allen Hamilton's pyNight and CyberSim, as well as, SANS NetWars.
One of Michael's strongest attributes is leadership. Michael has demonstrated leadership in many situations throughout his life. Michael decided to enlist into the United States Army Reserve during college. Michael commissioned as a Signal Officer in the United States Army Reserve responsible for teams that install, employ, maintain, troubleshoot and assist users with tactical battlefield signal support systems, terminal devices, tactical satellite communications equipment and automated telecommunications computer systems, to include local area networks, wide area networks, and routers.
STAR WARS Or star trek?
star wars... It's just something about the force...
Tabs or Spaces?
definitely Tabs, but my Tabs insert spaces
Editor?
vi
Language?
python
"Every problem can have multiple solutions. To see them you have to take a step back and look at the big picture. Don't limit yourself to just one route. "
Skills
Vulnerability Analysis
Cloud Security Engineering
Digital Forensics
Network Security Monitoring
In the Information Security Industry Michael has kept engaged in many ways. He has participated as a facilitator for SANS Institute conferences. Michael is also a member of the Greater Augusta ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) and the Signal Corps Regimental Association (SCRA)
Certifications
ISC2 CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
AWS Certified Security - Specialty
GIAC GICSP (Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional)
GIAC GCFE (Global Certified Forensic Examiner)
COMPTIA Security+ ce
COMPTIA PenTest+ ce
C)VA Certified Vulnerability Assessor
CHITSP (Certified Health IT Security Proficiency)
Augusta Cyber Institute BIAD (Basic Information Assurance Defender)
Courses / Training
Amazon Web Services
SANS Institute
Department of Homeland Security | ICS-CERT
- Operational Security (OpSEC) for Control Systems (100W)
- Cyber Security Industrial Control Systems (210W)
- Industrial Control System Cybersecurity (301)
Department of Defense
- U.S. Army Cyber Institute – Cyber Leader Development Program (CLDP)
- U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence - Signal Officer Leadership Course
Projects
Project Slam
Project Slam is an initiative to utilize open source programs, operating systems and tools to aid in defending nefarious adversaries. The overall focus is to research adversary's behavior and utilize the data that can be captured to generate word-lists, blacklists, and expose methodologies of various threat actors that can be provided back to the public in a meaningful and useful way.
You can find more information about the project here .
LogSheets
Google released an API for Google Sheets, and in essence, Google Sheets is a database in the "cloud." There are two benefits of using Google Sheets as such:
1. It's Free
Google Doesn't count Sheets, Docs, Slides, or Forms against your maximum storage quota.
2. Analysis Integration is endless
When data is in Google Sheets, you can analyze the data through Sheets since it's basically Excel, but you can also directly integrate that data into many services of the Google Cloud Platform effortlessly like big query, data lab, and other analytical systems to perform things like visualization.
LogSheets is a proof of concept to automate this transfer of logs into Google Sheets through the API. Initially, it supports Kippo (SSH Attempts), but once you have a parser for the log you can just invoke the Sheets API call and send the useful data from your logs to Google Sheets.
You can find more information about the project here .
Contact me
If you need assistance with something relating to cybersecurity or have any inquiries of me please don't hesitate to contact me.