I am a cybersecurity graduate student at Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from DePaul University and prior service in both the United States Marine Corps and United States Army infantry.
My portfolio focuses on practical problem-solving: recovering failed systems, building and securing lab infrastructure, administering Linux and Windows environments, analyzing risk, validating controls, and documenting the entire process—including the mistakes and unresolved findings.
I do not present home labs or academic exercises as professional production experience. Each repository clearly identifies its scope, evidence, limitations, and current status.
USG Revival · Basic Revival & Functional Validation Complete
Repurposed a donated Ubiquiti UniFi Security Gateway with OpenWrt 25.12.5 after preserving and inspecting its original internal USB. I reused the stock drive, verified the installation, and tested the revived gateway with PC-001 as a wired Windows client.
The recorded results include a successful boot, a hostname retained after reboot, a WAN DHCP lease, Internet reachability, and DNS resolution. Administrator login and webpage loading were confirmed through hands-on testing. The public repository contains 46 reviewed images, filesystem analysis, installation decisions, validation results, and permanent redactions. Throughput, inbound firewall enforcement, and long-term reliability remain untested.
Demonstrates: USB imaging and preservation, FTK Imager, FAT32/Ext3 and SquashFS analysis, checksum verification, OpenWrt installation, Linux troubleshooting, routing and DNS checks, evidence sanitization, and recovery documentation.
SLB Corona Donated Gear · Ongoing Home Lab Build
Tracks 19 items donated by Antonio Corona, from hardware identification and power requirements to configuration, testing, and project assignments. The first completed implementation is the USG revival.
PC-001, a Dell OptiPlex 3070 Micro with an Intel Core i5-9500T, 8 GB DDR4, and a 128 GB M.2 PCIe SSD, has completed its initial Windows 11 setup. The device record now includes redacted screenshots of Windows 11 Pro 25H2, current Windows updates, recognized memory, Windows-reported disk status, and separate Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity tests. Both network tests returned four ping replies with no loss and resolved example.com; webpage loading was also captured. These are basic functional checks, not throughput or extended reliability tests. Virtual-machine deployment on this computer remains planned.
Demonstrates: hardware inventory, BIOS baseline recording, Windows setup, equipment compatibility checks, network troubleshooting, device tracking, and evidence-aware documentation.
R36S Lite-Cyberdeck · Working Prototype
Recovered a non-booting R36S handheld and transformed it into a dual-purpose ARM Linux terminal and lightweight cybersecurity lab while preserving its gaming functionality.
Demonstrates: removable-media recovery, Linux filesystem analysis, ARM64 administration, Bash, Secure Shell (SSH), USB Wi-Fi investigation, Nmap, privilege review, service troubleshooting, evidence handling, and technical documentation.
Active Directory Home Lab · Complete
Built a Windows Server 2025 domain in Oracle VirtualBox with Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Routing and Remote Access Service (RAS)/Network Address Translation (NAT), a domain-joined Windows 10 client, Group Policy, and PowerShell user provisioning.
Demonstrates: identity and access management, Windows administration, network services, virtualization, Group Policy, PowerShell automation, secure credential handling, troubleshooting, and screenshot-backed documentation.
Secure Home Network Hardening Lab · Complete for This Phase
Hardened and validated a personally owned NETGEAR Nighthawk XR1000 v1 running DumaOS, staged behind an existing Internet Service Provider (ISP) gateway and tested with a Windows management workstation plus a bridged Kali Linux virtual machine in VMware Workstation.
The work included vendor-site firmware verification and manual remediation, guest-network isolation testing, disabling Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), port triggering, Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), and ReadySHARE services, authorized Nmap validation, Windows Firewall drop-log correlation, endpoint service reduction, and honest documentation of remaining DumaOS limitations.
Demonstrates: consumer-router hardening, change management, control validation, VMware Network Address Translation (NAT)-to-bridged migration, Nmap, Windows Firewall analysis, endpoint service review, and residual-risk documentation.
Simulated Security Assessment · Complete Academic Portfolio
Created a four-phase assessment and reporting portfolio for a fictional organization, covering reconnaissance methodology, scan planning, vulnerability assessment, defensive risk analysis, and separate executive and technical reports.
Demonstrates: assessment scoping, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) methodology, vulnerability triage, risk reasoning, defensive detection thinking, ethical judgment, sanitization, and audience-specific reporting.
Secure Containerized 5G Network Slices · Complete Design Capstone
Designed a multi-slice 5G security architecture for video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Internet of Things (IoT) services using a containerized 5G core, Kubernetes isolation, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and a six-threat defense model.
Demonstrates: 5G architecture, network slicing, Kubernetes security concepts, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), network policies, threat modeling, Quality of Service (QoS) security analysis, and architecture documentation.
Cybersecurity Concepts & Case Study Notes · Curated Knowledge Base
A defensive study repository covering frameworks, breach case studies, ethics, legal scope, governance, and security fundamentals.
Demonstrates: Cyber Kill Chain, Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls, Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10, Zero Trust, breach root-cause analysis, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) thinking, sourcing, and technical writing.
| Project | Environment | Primary focus | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| USG Revival | Ubiquiti USG / OpenWrt / stock USB / Windows client | Appliance recovery, routing, DNS, evidence handling | 46 reviewed images, installation record, verification results, documented test limits |
| SLB Corona Donated Gear | Donated networking equipment / Windows 11 mini PC | Inventory, hardware inspection, setup, project tracking | Dated inventory and device records; redacted hardware, Windows setup, update, memory, storage, Ethernet and Wi-Fi evidence |
| R36S Lite-Cyberdeck | ARM64 Linux / embedded hardware | Recovery, administration, scripting, networking | 30 sanitized screenshots, evidence catalog, troubleshooting log |
| Active Directory Home Lab | Windows Server 2025 / Windows 10 / VirtualBox | Identity, DNS, DHCP, NAT, Group Policy, PowerShell | Reproducible seven-section guide and live-lab screenshots |
| Secure Home Network | NETGEAR XR1000/DumaOS · Windows · Kali · VMware | Consumer-router hardening and control validation | Firmware change record, guest-isolation tests, scans, firewall correlation, residual-risk log |
| Simulated Security Assessment | Fictional academic environment | Assessment lifecycle and reporting | Risk register, executive report, technical report, methodology |
| 5G Security Capstone | Design-focused 5G / Kubernetes / SDN | Architecture and threat modeling | Original diagram, threat-defense mapping, reference manifests |
| Cybersecurity Notes | Research and coursework synthesis | Frameworks, incidents, ethics, and GRC | Cited analyses and clearly labeled personal interpretations |
| Domain | Technologies and capabilities |
|---|---|
| Operating systems | Windows Server 2025, Windows 10/11, Kali Linux, Debian-based Linux, ARM64 Linux |
| Identity and Windows infrastructure | Active Directory Domain Services, Organizational Units, security groups, Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, RAS/NAT, PowerShell |
| Networking | TCP/IP, subnetting, routing, NAT, OpenWrt, wireless isolation, Nmap, NetworkManager, firewall validation, SDN/NFV concepts |
| Linux and embedded systems | Bash, SSH/SFTP, services, permissions, storage recovery, FAT32/Ext3/Ext4 and SquashFS analysis, package and kernel-module investigation |
| Security analysis | Vulnerability assessment methodology, threat modeling, risk registers, security frameworks, control mapping, residual-risk documentation |
| Cloud-native and emerging networks | Kubernetes namespaces, RBAC, network policies, resource quotas, containerized 5G core and network slicing concepts |
| Virtualization and recovery | Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, virtual networking, USB passthrough troubleshooting, disk imaging, FTK Imager, checksum verification, TestDisk, bootable media |
| Professional documentation | Executive summaries, technical reports, reproducible lab guides, evidence catalogs, troubleshooting logs, architecture diagrams |
- Verify controls instead of trusting configuration screens. I test whether isolation, addressing, authentication, and firewall behavior work end to end.
- Document failures as well as successes. Permission errors, broken sessions, tool limitations, and incorrect assumptions are part of the engineering record.
- Separate facts from hypotheses. My repositories identify what the evidence proves, what remains an interpretation, and what was not tested.
- Treat security and ethics as design requirements. Scope statements, sanitization, authorization boundaries, and credential handling are documented explicitly.
- Communicate for the audience. I write both technical implementation detail and recruiter/leadership-level summaries.
- Master's Degree in Cybersecurity — In Progress, Northern Illinois University
- Cybersecurity Bootcamp, Springboard & Northern Illinois University, June 2025
- Bachelor of Science in Criminology, DePaul University, June 2025
- Associate Degree in Applied Social Science, Criminal Justice, College of DuPage, May 2024
- United States Marine Corps veteran
- United States Army infantry veteran
- Assistant Regional Director of Expansion, Sigma Lambda Beta Intl. Fraternity Inc.
- Dean's Award for Scholastic Excellence
- Former Vice President, Alpha Phi Sigma Criminology Honor Society
Lab progress — October 5, 2026: USG Revival is published, and PC-001's initial setup and basic wired/wireless verification are documented with redacted evidence. The donated-gear inventory and device records track confirmed results and remaining verification limits.
I am continuing to build practical depth in security operations, network defense, identity and access management, incident response, Linux/Windows administration, vulnerability management, automation, and enterprise infrastructure security.
I am interested in entry-level and early-career opportunities involving cybersecurity analysis, Security Operations Center (SOC) work, network security, systems administration, infrastructure security, and Information Technology support.
gophish— a copy of the external open-source Gophish project; not presented as my original work.mcp-for-beginners— an external Model Context Protocol learning curriculum; not presented as my original authorship.
LinkedIn · Chicago, Illinois
When there's a will, there's a way.