OPERATION MIRAGE

Personal: My name is Brayden, and my path into cybersecurity started through a strong foundation in IT. For over a year, I’ve worked hands-on with users and networks, diagnosing problems and learning how systems break. That curiosity grew into a tactical mindset. I began exploring threat behavior, building a home lab, and studying SOC operations with the same discipline I bring to my hobbies. I was recently married in July — Linda and I share our life in Texas while I study at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Outside of tech, I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, run backpacking trips, and DM my own Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. I love structure, challenge, and the kind of creativity that lives inside constraints.

Why Cybersecurity: I chose cybersecurity because I want to make an impact in the world by protecting others. I’m drawn to this field for both the challenge and the purpose. I want to defend systems, preserve trust, and keep people safe from adversarial threats. I thrive in environments where I can think tactically, act decisively, and build defenses that actually matter.

Mission Statement: I'm an entry-level cybersecurity professional with hands-on experience in real-world incident response, endpoint protection, and firewall policy enforcement. This portfolio is built to demonstrate my practical understanding of adversary behavior and how I apply structured detection and analysis methods in a home lab environment modeled after real SOC workflows.

Tools & Technologies: MITRE ATT&CK, Caldera, Sysmon, Wazuh, SIGMA, Splunk, NGINX, cloudflared, GitHub Actions, PowerShell, Wireshark.

Strengths: Detection engineering, log analysis, offensive simulation, Linux hardening, visual documentation, and public communication.

Certifications: CompTIA Security+ (Passed), CySA+ (in progress)

Currently Building: 10+ fully documented MITRE techniques with custom rules, faux SIEM UI, public Git rule set.