rhys@mcclew:~$whoamiwhoami
I am a Security Analyst and Incident Responder, based in the North East, defending local businesses. My days are spent triaging alerts within the SOC, analysing suspicious files, and performing preventative work, such as creating custom detection rules, monitoring threat intelligence, and auditing network security posture.
The beginning of my career was built over six years as a Full-Stack Web Developer, where I managed projects through the entire SDLC. Programming was fantastic for improving my problem solving skills, attention to detail and failure tolerance. Now, I apply that same problem-solving mindset to defending those systems instead of developing them.
The dynamic nature of security is what captured my interest (more so than the new JavaScript framework of the month). The goalpost is constantly moving, and that challenge, the need to learn something new every day, is what I truly love about this field. I dedicate my free time to catching-up with all I'm yet to learn or practising with CTFs.
Beyond the Keyboard
While I very rarely code professionally, my six years as a developer have cemented a deep love for programming. Moving away from the daily demands of professional development has actually reignited coding as a hobby, allowing me to focus on personal projects, random terrible game ideas and security-focused scripting.
I am an avid reader who rarely takes more than two weeks to finish a book. My preferred genres are fantasy and sci-fi, though I often pick up non-fiction too. These books offer me that sometimes much needed escape.
MY FAVOURITESWhen I need to escape from computers, but still want something non-fiction, I usually head straight for zoology or palaeontology.