FIFO Networks

Now offering personal cybersecurity setup for journalists, stalking victims and others. DM me or use the "Contact Us" page on the FIFO Networks website. It's only me. You'll be communicating directly with me.

Most of my income: network and cybersecurity projects for public utilities.
Most of my time: IT services by the hour for companies too small to have an in-house IT staff, including SOHO businesses and residential.
I also unlock computers and do data recovery and account recovery for people when a loved one dies. (Advice: keep paying their cell phone bill until you've got all their data back, and if they used a smartwatch, keep it charged and ready).

Network design assistance (both wired and wireless).
Cybersecurity assistance: policy, design, implementation, training.
Training at all levels for IT and RF engineers and technicians.
Expert witness services in cases involving data or wireless networks.
Crisis resolution.
Emergency interim management.
Clients include hospitals and many public utilities (electric, gas, water), nationwide.

Licensed and insured.

Sole Proprietor, Consultant - IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Management 

Wireless Advocates

CISO and Director of Information Security

Everett Community College

I wrote and taught the course, "Basic Electronics and Troubleshooting," at Boeing's request. I also updated and taught the follow-up course, "Intermediate Electronics and Troubleshooting."

Technical Instructor

Bellevue College

Over the years I have taught various courses at BC including: Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security, Server Management, Smartphone and Tablet Security, Network+, A+, Certified Cellular/PCS Technician, Wireless Fundamentals, Cellular Fundamentals, Voice over IP, and more. I have also provided custom training through BC to various companies including T-Mobile, Costco, and the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources.

Adjunct Professor

Peripheral Vision Communications, Inc.

Wireless and telecom consulting and technical services. Integration of voice and data communications systems using diverse communications protocols. Design review, budgeting assistance. 802.11, VoIP, bandwidth calculations, propagation solutions, and more. Clients include all major US cellular carriers.

President

Western Wireless

Directed all new cell site construction, and all civil upgrades to existing cell sites, in Western Wireless' area of operation (19 states). Western Wireless owned the Cellular One brand name. Received 100% of my bonus for in-budget completion.

Director, National System Development

Tele-Waves

Directed the design, installation, and maintenance of two satellite data distribution systems with a nationwide footprint. In budget every year.

Director, Technical Services

Portland Paging/PageWEST-TSI

On time, in budget: managed the design and installation of a profitable satellite controlled wireless communications system.

Regional Manager, Technical Services

US Navy

My last assignment was Shop Supervisor, all shifts, Avionics Department, USS Okinawa (LPH-3). I held a Secret clearance related to crypto electronics.

Aviation Electronics Technician

I make networks resilient, recoverable, and - almost always - simpler.

Some of my projects:
Interstate highway network design for California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans) for part of Interstate 10 for traffic monitoring and control.

Network and cybersecurity evaluations for various public utilities.

Achieved PCI DSS compliance in less than 4 months for a company that was paying monthly fines for non-compliance.

Designed, installed, and maintained wired and wireless communications systems and network infrastructure in many hospitals in many states.

Cell and WISP site lease valuations for Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Wireless communications site inspections for the City of Bremerton, Washington.

Antenna and tower design for the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Commercial communications tower lease valuation for Port of Olympia, Washington.

Reviewed patent applications.

Expert witness with trial experience.

Developed certification course for electronics technicians under contract with Boeing.

Developed and taught courses at Bellevue College, Everett Community College, Oregon Coast Community College, and Perry Technical Institute (Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom - VoIP).

Taught several CompTIA courses to hundreds of students.

In addition to training and management, I'm also providing remote tech support to small businesses and home office workers. See https://fifonetworks.com/ or call me at (206) 465-2422 for more info or to schedule service. Fast response times.

Years of CISO and Director experience.
I take delight in mentoring today's leaders and teams.
I'm 69 years old and cutting edge current. My age isn't a bug, it's a feature.

Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom - VoIP

I can help your city, corporation, or small business be prepared for a crisis, or recover from it.

Available by the hour, weekly, monthly, project - let's discuss!

Full time? I'll accept an invitation to interview. We can take care of paperwork if we both agree it's a good fit.

Comfortable in the server room and the boardroom. Successfully managed budgets and projects up to $132M and nationally distributed teams. Quite familiar with extensive travel (Delta Gold, Hilton Diamond) and remote work. Crisis management, department overhauls, network optimization - contact me today at (206) 465-2422.

US Government offices: registered through SAM, available to work on federal government projects.

State of Washington offices: registered through MRSC Rosters for state, county, and city projects.

Bob Young

  Undisclosed

•	Performed full security audit for a recently compromised small business owner
•	Identified the attack, responded to the incident, and hardened systems to prevent future attacks
•	Explained technical security concepts and trained client on security awareness best practices
•	Conducted risk assessment and recommended control selections to reduce risk to an acceptable level
•	Planned, designed, and managed information security initiatives in support of confidentiality, integrity, and availability
• Wrote technical documents and published cybersecurity content to educate users of social media platforms and search engines

Cybersecurity Consultant

Make Waves Marketing

Digital Marketing & Content Creation Services | We Help Small Businesses Make Big Waves

SERVICES:
•	Providing general business management and marketing services to small business clients and entrepreneurs across a variety of industries
•	Creating digital marketing strategies and executing content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM/Google Ads), email marketing (Mailchimp, Kartra), social media marketing (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Clubhouse), online advertising (social media & Google Ads), website optimization, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing and sales
•	Analyzing digital marketing campaigns using Google Analytics and social media analytics

RESULTS:
•	Wrote strategic plan to drive incremental revenue of $3.3M through integrated digital marketing campaigns and expansion into new channels
•	Developed new online revenue stream to add $144K per year in incremental, passive income
•	Completely revamped a client’s operations and administrative systems to save $58K a year and significantly reduce staff’s time spent on reporting and analytics
•	Grew Instagram account organically by over 1,000 targeted followers in 2 weeks, achieved 22% engagement rate

Founder & Lead Digital Marketing Consultant

Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Florida

Board Member

Cybersecurity Home Lab

•	Prepared, executed, and reported on audit of NIST SP 800-53 cybersecurity controls that included interview, document review, and testing of systems to support compliance audit activities
•	Applied knowledge of NIST Cybersecurity Framework and how the Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover categories comprise and facilitate an information security program
•	Quantitatively analyzed cybersecurity risk using NIST SP 800-30 to identify highest system risks
•	Executed threat modeling exercise to determine higher likelihood threat events
•	Developed information security policy to establish authorized access management and authenticator management for internal and third-party personnel
•	Ensured policy documents are aligned with business objectives, implementable by the organization, and practical for compliance 
•	Incorporated operational perspective and constraints throughout policy purpose, scope, and authority

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC)

Threat Hunting
•	Conducted IoC research by downloading malware, identifying the indicators of compromise (IoCs) and the incident using Wireshark
•	Utilized ThreatConnect, a Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP), to research the Mimikatz exploitation tool
•	Created persistent malware using MSF, and hunted for its processes

Static Malware Analysis
•	Performed basic static malware analysis on a file and wrote a report on my investigation findings
•	Investigated dynamic-link library (DLL) files to identify functionality and potential malware

Dynamic Malware Analysis
•	Executed malware in a Cuckoo sandbox environment
•	Analyzed file system changes, network activity, registry changes, utilized Sysinternals Autoruns tool, Process Explorer, Regshot, and Process Monitor (ProcMon) to investigate a malware sample and identify IoCs.
•	Created malware with MSFvenom and investigated it with dynamic investigation tools such as Netstat, online block list databases, FakeNet-NG and INetSim

Network Forensics
•	Set up and reviewed data from a reverse proxy
•	Used Zeek, a network security monitor, to detect and investigate a DNS tunnel
•	Followed the following steps in malware investigation: 1. Checked for malware signatures, used an IDS, 2. Identified traffic abnormalities using Wireshark, 3. Identified key stations, 4. Filtered by IoCs and gathered data, 5. Analyzed the protocol data

Malware Defense & Persistence
•	Conducted an APT investigation and located persistent malware in a victim’s machine
•	Discovered an information leakage caused by a computer

Digital Forensics & Incident Response (DFIR) - Part 3 - and Threat Hunting

Windows Dead Analysis:
•	Investigated a raw image file using PowerForensics and determined where an attack originated
•	Created a disk image and uncovered the original content from alternate data streams
•	Accessed and retrieved hidden data from an image file using file carving techniques with the Binwalk tool and a hex editor

Memory Analysis
•	Inspected an image for IoCs (indictors of compromise) revealing the system was infected with WannaCry
•	Investigated processes using pslist and pstree, investigated network activity using connscan and socket, investigated DLLs using dlllist, kerberos.dll, and netlogon.dll and detected a code injection using malfind

Linux Forensics
•	Created a forensics acquisition CD with static binaries and used it to extract information from a Linux OS
•	Investigated a server image and identified deleted and modified files
•	Mimicked bind shell behavior and conducted a live analysis of the /proc/ directory content

Log Analysis & Timeline
•	Searched for events in Windows Event Viewer to understand their structure
•	Examined the Event Viewer investigation process via SQL queries
•	Deleted and modified logs in Linux and Windows machines to mimic attack techniques

DFIR Simulation
•	Handled a “real-life” DFIR investigation scenario through a Capture the Flag (CTF) challenge

Digital Forensics & Incident Response (DFIR) - Part 2

Introduction to DFIR:
•	Discovered evidence of programs executed upon startup using AutoRuns64
•	Recovered files from a suspicious USB drive and proved they were used to steal sensitive data, used HashMyFiles to verify match between leaked and suspected files, also used exiftool to examine metadata
•	Analyzed multiple attack scenarios in an organization, and recommended the best DFIR methodology to apply

Incident Response Preparation:
•	Deployed Lansweeper to scan a network and identify, map, manage and protect assets
•	Created incident response plans for alerts including the four phases of preparation, identification, containment, and eradication

Incident Response Implementation:
•	Assigned priorities to incidents based on the methodology of function, information, and recovery (FIR)
•	Successfully contained a malicious program (that was spreading infection and controlled by an intruder) by air gapping the network and creating a sandbox environment in a FLARE virtual machine

Data Acquisition:
•	Created a drive capture using CAINE (Computer Aided Investigative Environment) Linux distribution for digital forensics
•	Created a disk image with FTK Imager and mounted it using OSFMount
•	Captured the RAM of a virtual machine (using FTK Imager) and acquired basic information about it using Volatility in a SIFT (Sans Investigative Forensics Toolkit) Workstation
•	Configured Windows 10 to create a memory dump during a system crash

Windows Live Analysis:
•	Conducted a forensics review of web browser usage by examining the DNS cache
•	Identified USB connection history using NirSoft’s USBDeview tool
•	Investigated browser history using NirLauncher
•	Identified evidence within prefetch files that a deleted program was previously executed on a computer, using the WinPrefetchView tool
•	Looked for suspicious activity in the registry using regedit
•	Examined web history using NirSoft’s MyLastSearch

Digital Forensics & Incident Response (DFIR) - Part 1

•	Executed a variety of mock cyberattacks in a virtual lab environment, including social engineering, man-in-the-middle/on-path, brute-force, cryptographic, network, database, and application attacks
•	Conducted reconnaissance and bypassed defense systems
•	Enumerated organizations and exploited services and ports
•	Performed privilege escalation to become a system administrator
•	Seized control over websites, web platforms, and their host servers
•	Used advanced web application penetration techniques such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and file inclusion, to discover and exploit vulnerabilities in cloud-based systems
•	Compromised a database with SQL injection
•	Conducted vulnerability scanning and wrote penetration testing reports with security defense recommendations

Key Tools used:
Nmap, Hping3, Masscan, Arpspoof (dSniff), Bettercap, SSL Strip, John the Ripper, Rar2John, Hashcat, Common User Passwords Profiler (CUPP), Hydra, Medusa, Ncrack, SEToolkit, HiddenEye, WinRAR Self-Extracting Archive (SFX), Metasploit, Searchsploit, Reverse shells, Meterpreter, Bloodhound, HTTP servers Apache2 and Nginx, Burp Suite, SQLMap, OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP), Nikto, bWAPP (buggy web application)

Ethical Hacking

•	Set up a Python environment in Windows and Linux
•	Used and customized PyCharm as my IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
•	Executed nested loops
•	Created a range with various inputs in a loop
•	Built a calculator
•	Created a network client and server socket, built basic connectivity between the two
•	Wrote an ARP poisoning detector to detect On-Path (aka Man-In-The-Middle) attacks
•	Resolved errors in code using try and except statements

Python for Security

•	Bypassed anti-virus software using file encryption techniques
•	Implemented endpoint detection and response (EDR) security suites
•	Created YARA rules to find malicious applications at endpoints
•	Updated a ClamAV virus database with the YARA rules and an allow-list
•	Installed a Modern Honey Network (MHN), configured a Dionea honeypot, simulated attacks on the honeypot
•	Configured a Valhalla honeypot to capture POP3 traffic
•	Demonstrated data loss prevention (DLP) techniques through regular expressions 
•	Connected to a POP3 machine with Telnet and used POP3 commands to view messages
•	Established understanding of a log file’s flow, from creation to processing in a SIEM, to determining whether or not it classifies as an alert
•	Worked with Splunk as a SIEM service to monitor infrastructure
•	Configured Snort, an open-sourced Intrusion Detection System (IDS)/Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), on pfSense and monitored ICMP traffic with rules
•	Automated processes using Security, Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) for better incident management
•	Used Shodan to locate Industrial Control System (ICS) components
•	Designed a secure network architecture

Cyber Infrastructure & Technologies

•	Utilized Cisco Packet Tracer to examine and troubleshoot network behavior and evaluated network security threat types
•	Configured security settings for a Cisco network switch and a Cisco ASA firewall
•	Created, deleted, and managed VLANs and Trunk lines
•	Configured Open VPN connections and TOR browser
•	Implemented Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) using Snort and Suricata

Networking Security

•	Created and managed ownership of Linux files and folders
•	Executed common commands using the GUI and Terminal Emulator
•	Installed packages, software updates, and upgrades
•	Configured network settings using Linux commands
•	Identified and minimized network and workstation vulnerabilities
•	Wrote scripts to automate IP blocking and other system hardening techniques
•	Leveraged Linux System Service Management to implement features, services, and perform critical system tasks
•	Utilized the Bash default shell and scripting tool to automate repetitive tasks and functions
•	Established password and user policies to prevent data theft

Linux Security

•	Established off-premise services in the cloud by setting up an AWS (Amazon Web Services) account with an Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instance
•	Implemented AWS IAM (Identity Access Management)
•	Created a network in UniFi SDN and a virtual appliance
•	Used Amazon Security Groups and Amazon Inspector to secure data in the cloud

Cloud Security

•	Applied networking concepts including protocols such as TCP/IP, topologies, and network devices
•	Investigated network traffic using Wireshark and Nagios
•	Managed Cisco device configurations and system files
•	Executed port security commands on a Cisco switch
•	Configured SSH, configured and verified IPv6 addressing on a router
•	Configured IPv4 standard, default, summary and dynamic routes
•	Conducted troubleshooting on network issues using CDP, LLDP, Syslog, and NTP
•	Utilized the ACL (Access Control List) and configured firewall for network security
•	Set up a DHCP service on a Cisco router

Computer Networking

•	Managed, operated, and hardened a Microsoft domain environment (Windows 2016 Server) along with newer operating systems (Windows 10 Client and Windows 2019 Server)
•	Implemented configuration utilities in the Windows OS (both client and server)
•	Deployed a domain controller on the server with the Active Directory Domain Services role installed
•	Created users and groups and utilized the Group Policy tool to manage security
•	Performed a remote connection to a Windows machine using Remote Desktop protocol (RDP)
•	Executed Windows maintenance tasks such as updates and backups to support system health
•	Practiced DNSSEC in a Windows environment to protect against cyberattacks
•	Utilized BitLocker, User Access Control, and Windows Defender to strengthen defenses
•	Explored execution policy modes and bypass techniques
•	Wrote scripts using PowerShell to automate tasks from the command line

Microsoft Security

Began my cybersecurity experience by completing project #1 of over 250 for the year!
Installed and configured Oracle VirtualBox to run virtual machines for further lab work.

Introduction to Cybersecurity

B&G Foods Inc.

•	Wrote strategic plan to achieve growth and profitability goals for Sales and Marketing 
•	Managed cross-functional teams including Finance, R&D, and Operations to align on corporate strategic objectives  
•	Extracted key consumer and customer insights from vast amounts of data and a variety of research sources to make fact-based decisions  
•	Developed and tested concepts for innovative new products generated by qualitative and quantitative data analysis, industry trends, and consumer insights
•	Supervised and managed 5 vendor teams with a total of 17 indirect reports
•	Managed Nielsen and Market Track contracts, led successful year-end negotiations

Business Strategy Manager | Category Marketing Analyst 

L'Oréal

•	Managed salon professional brands in the haircolor and texture categories to achieve sales goals of $22.5M 
•	Launched a new haircolor brand to a multicultural, niche target market 
•	Contributed innovative ideas for brand strategy and operational marketing plan 
•	Planned and executed promotions, local advertising and media strategy 
•	Managed marketing budget, product forecast, inventory, COGs, and pricing

Assistant Marketing Manager

Church & Dwight Co., Inc.

Product Management MBA Intern

Sanofi Pasteur

Professional Biological Products Specialist

Pfizer

Healthcare Representative

🌟🌟 Mentorship Mondays is currently on hiatus, but I hope to bring it back soon!  🌟🌟

Hi, I’m Alyson! 👋🏻😊 My background is in business, specifically marketing, and recently I made a career change into cybersecurity. I’m now working as a BISA, a Business Information Security Analyst. It’s a very unique role in the industry that bridges the gap between two departments that often speak completely different languages – the cybersecurity (aka information security or IT security) team and the rest of the business (marketing, finance, legal, etc).

💠 I love this role for several reasons! First, because it makes a great impact on the organization by fostering more effective communications and strengthening relationships across multiple teams. In this capacity, I rely heavily upon my soft skills and business acumen. 

💠 Secondly, I am able to utilize the cybersecurity skills and knowledge I’ve obtained over the past three years. I work directly with subject matter experts across all areas of cybersecurity - offense/defense, cloud, IAM, AppSec, GRC, and more! My technical learning and development is a constant work in progress, and seeing my growth here is super exciting and motivating!

💠 And lastly, I love this work because of its overall mission. Every day I get to help people. I feel so good about doing work that matters. Cybersecurity risk is not something that will ever go away, but I can do my best to protect myself, my family and friends, my company and other businesses.

I'm also now working as a part-time cybersecurity instructor for one of the universities located in Florida. It is the same program I graduated from in June 2022, and I'm so happy to be back, this time to teach what I've learned and to help others launch their own cybersecurity careers. It's such a rewarding experience!

It truly takes a village. My career success wouldn’t have been possible without my amazing network here on LinkedIn. You’ve all played a part and I thank you so much for that. I hope that I can give back to each of you so that this wonderful community continues to grow and all of our dreams come true. 😊💗

P.S. You will not see the names of my current employers here on LinkedIn in order to prevent phishing attempts and other security issues. It also protects me from potential legal issues. While this is a public platform, my account is personal to me (not owned by any of my employers) and all views I express here are my own. An extra benefit of not disclosing my employer names is fewer sales pitches in my inbox here too!

taplio

The Battle

Bob Young

Alyson Van Stone, MBA

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?