Hi, I'm Ryan and Cybersecurity is my passion

I love using data to solve security problems and I believe that adversarial disruption and cyber deception are ways to affect real change in the industry.I'm currently working at Meta (fka FACEBOOK) to help protect over 2 billion users from malware threats. I work to uncover new malware (especially on Android and iOS) that targets our users and to design scaled detection methods and industry/Internet-wide proposals to combat malware in a more general sense and improve the overall security of the Internet.From 2008-2020, I was a member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard as a Field Artillery Officer. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 as a HIMARS Platoon Leader and deployed again in 2018 as a HIMARS Battery Commander. During this time I learned a great deal about leading people in adverse conditions, along with how to think strategically about problems.I spent time working as a Security Researcher at Corelight, a leader in the Network Detection and Response (NDR) space. While there, I focused on creating new network-based detections using Zeek, both with Zeek scripting and Zeek plugin (C++) development.While at Comerica Bank, I built out our Security Data Warehouse and Network Security Monitoring (NSM) program from the ground up. I also architected and built a completely in-house Wire Fraud detection system that integrated in real-time with our Wire system to identify fraudulent wires and block them before they left the bank.My technical specialties include Ruby, Presto/Hive/SparkSQL SQL queries, Docker, distributed systems design and management, AWS native services (Kinesis, Athena, Lambda, etc.), Malware Analysis, and much more.Outside of work, I enjoy photography, cooking (I'm trying to improve my homemade sushi), 3D Printing, laser engraving, spending time with my family, and generally jumping from one hobby/topic to another far too often.

Musings on Cyber Deception

A place for me to put all sorts of things I want to talk about regarding Cyber Deception

All things Malware

A place for me to put all sorts of things I want to talk about regarding Malware

My cooking journeys

I love to cook. My current obsessions are Sushi and Wok cooking. Sushi is a real challenge for me, it's hard to really get much practice as the setup is so involved and the time it takes is daunting. That being said, I'm getting better each time!

Photography

One of my (many) hobbies is photography. I really enjoy how happy people get when they see good pictures, especially compared to the relatively low quality pictures we're so used to today. I shoot on a Nikon D810 and usually use a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

Etcetera

Things that don't fit anywhere else