Cybersecurity Internship
John Fay for Congress (A Better Way Campaign) | Spring 2026 | Remote | Cybersecurity Specialist
During the spring of 2026 I completed a remote cybersecurity internship with John Fay for Congress, formerly A Better Way Campaign, a political organization based in Florida. I was placed within the Cybersecurity subdepartment under the Information Technology department, and volunteered to join the Assessments team within the organization’s SMART Cybersecurity framework.
My primary contributions were in planning, assessment, and vulnerability testing. I authored the initial drafts of both a Multifactor Authentication implementation plan and a Phishing Simulation plan, each covering scope, methodology, rollout phases, monitoring procedures, ethical considerations, and expected security impact. I also conducted a baseline Google Drive access control audit, identifying authorization gaps and updating access documentation for the organization. Throughout the internship my team and I conducted periodic vulnerability scans using Nmap, Wireshark, and WPScan, cross-referencing findings against the NIST CVE database. Toward the end of the internship I contributed to a staff-wide phishing awareness assessment, developing scenario-based questions and a realistic application phishing example to evaluate organizational security awareness.
One of my biggest takeaways was that professional cybersecurity work often involves as much planning, documentation, and communication as it does technical execution. Bridging communication between leadership, team members, and new interns taught me how to operate effectively in a structured organizational environment. The experience reinforced my academic foundation while giving me my first look at how security initiatives are developed and communicated in a real professional setting.