Course Grade Received: A

Introduction to Cybersecurity

This course provided a comprehensive overview of cybersecurity principles, including threat landscapes, risk management strategies, and defensive security frameworks. Students analyzed vulnerabilities, explored cryptographic foundations, and developed an understanding of how security is implemented across systems and networks.

🔍 Applied Knowledge & Analysis

Analyzed real-world cyber threats and mapped them to security controls
Evaluated vulnerabilities using risk-based thinking (likelihood vs impact)
Applied the CIA triad to system design and decision-making
Interpreted basic cryptographic concepts and their real-world use cases
Explored governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) principles

🔐 Core Frameworks & Principles

CIA Triad
Risk Management Framework (RMF basics)
Defense-in-Depth
Least Privilege
Threat Modeling Basics

🧠 Security Mindset Development

This course helped transition my thinking from general IT knowledge to a security-focused mindset, where systems are evaluated not just for functionality, but for resilience against threats, misuse, and adversarial behavior.

🔗 Independent Exploration

To reinforce foundational concepts from CYSE 300, I am revisiting core cybersecurity topics through independent lab work and research, including:

Building a basic threat model for a web application
Mapping vulnerabilities to mitigation strategies
Practicing risk assessment using real-world scenarios
Reviewing cryptographic implementations in modern systems

Course Topics & Lab Coverage

Prioritized information assets and assessed associated risks
Identified and evaluated threats using structured risk analysis
Developed foundational security strategies and architectures
Planned and responded to simulated intrusion scenarios
Analyzed legal and public relations implications of security incidents
Designed a disaster recovery and business continuity approach

The cybersecurity laboratories include the following:

Conducted reconnaissance and probing using industry-standard tools
Performed vulnerability assessments and risk evaluations
Configured Active Directory and implemented access controls
Applied Group Policy and security baselines for system hardening
Analyzed network traffic using packet capture tools
Implemented encryption to protect confidentiality and integrity
Simulated web and database attacks to understand exploitation techniques
Applied layered security strategies to mitigate threats

Key Skills & Topics

Risk management & threat modeling
Cryptography fundamentals
Security architecture & design
Vulnerability analysis
CIA triad & security controls
Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC)
Incident response basics

Course Material

Artificial Intelligence in Digital Forensics: Opportunities, Risks, and Future Directions

🤖 A discussion board paper examining AI’s emerging role in digital forensics — exploring how machine learning accelerates evidence analysis while introducing new risks around bias, explainability, and adversarial manipulation of forensic tools.

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Internet of Things (IoT): Security Challenges

📡 An analysis of the unique cybersecurity risks introduced by IoT devices, covering attack surfaces, authentication weaknesses, firmware vulnerabilities, and the challenges of securing resource-constrained devices at scale.

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The NotPetya Cybersecurity Attack & Breach

💥 A short paper analyzing the 2017 NotPetya attack — one of the most destructive cyberattacks in history — examining its origins, propagation via the EternalBlue exploit, and its cascading impact on global critical infrastructure.

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Security Polices from a CISO’s Perspective

🏢 A short paper examining enterprise security policy design through the lens of a Chief Information Security Officer, analyzing how CISOs balance technical controls, regulatory compliance, and organizational risk tolerance to build effective security frameworks.

CYSE-300-Short-Paper-2-fd-ePortfolio