I want to make technology more secure and accessible for everyone.

Security enthusiast | Geocacher | Objectivist | Blogger | Researcher | Speaker | Amateur media critic | Wannabe toucan owner

24 Washington, DC (NoMA)


Hello! I am Wyatt.

Ph.D. Student at Dakota State University

I am a first-year student in the Ph.D. Cyber Operations (PhDCO) program at DSU, just starting my career in the industry and striving to make technology more secure and accessible for everyone. My research interests are in system and network forensics, open-source intelligence, and disinformation.

I frequently participate in computer security red/blue competitions, Capture the Flag tournaments, and STEM outreach events around the world. Currently, I am researching ways to apply OSINT to search and rescue missions, law enforcement cases, and threat intelligence. I also enjoy being a lifelong student by incorporating other disciplines and perspectives into my activities, from psychology and sociology to philosophy, journalism, communications, and political science.

In my spare time, I am often updating my blog, volunteering with STEM and environmental campaigns around DC, or doing adventurous activities such as geocaching and bouldering. In the future, I hope to learn to fly a paramotor and adopt a rescue toucan.


Picture of Wyatt Tauber

Accomplishments

Technical, professional, educational, and volunteer involvements


CyberCorps Scholarship for Service logo

Awards
NSF, ISSA, Black Hat

I was awarded the National Science Foundation's CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) while attending RIT to recognize my academic achievements and personal commitment to making national systems and data more secure and accountable to civilians.

I was also the recipient of the International Systems Security Association (ISSA)'s Howard A. Schmidt Award in honor of the past president of the ISSA International Board, presidential computer security adviser, and US-CERT chief security strategist, as well as the Black Hat Student Scholarship. I was awarded these scholarships due to my academics, activities, and desire to work in national security.

CISSP Logo

Certifications
ISC2, GIAC

I currently hold ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM), CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+), and Cisco Certified Cyber Ops Associate (CCCOA), as well as membership in the GIAC Advisory Board and other certifications. Certifications complement my academics, extracurriculars, and work experience, and I see them as an excellent way to validate and reinforce my growing skillset.

I plan to obtain further certifications in security analytics and blue team operations soon. These certifications will validate the skills I have learned through classes, personal and club projects, internships, and competitions.


FIRST Robotics Competition logo

Activism

FIRST, H4D, CyberForce

I volunteer for the FIRST Robotics competition as part of my goal to improve STEM education and extracurricular opportunities for students in rural areas. I was previously recognized by Scholarship America and the ACT for this commitment. I continue working towards this goal by mentoring Hacking for Defense (H4D) teams at various universities and assisting with DoE CyberForce to bring STEM, CS, and security skills to all levels of education.

I also advocate for cybersecurity proficiency and the technology workforce in the federal government. As part of Hackers on the Hill, I met with the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to address the cyber talent gap and the shortfalls in federal, state, and local cybersecurity employees.

Badges and accomplishments are available on Credly and Merit


Projects

A selection of projects and articles I've worked on

Past projects are available on Medium


Experience

Employment, education, and skills

Employment

Development Specialist

Seal of the United States United States Federal Government

Washington, DC

The executive branch of the United States federal government is responsible for the day-to-day operation of federal departments and agencies.

Operations Development Program

April 2025 - 2026

Diversity Tour

July 2024 - April 2025

Offensive Operations Tour

October 2023 - July 2024

Defensive Operations Tour

June - October 2023

Core Training; Superior Teammate Award

  • Developed core software engineering skills in software, hardware, and networking domains
  • Completed courses in capability design, network programming, and reverse engineering
  • Practiced Windows capability programming in C/C++, x86, Python, and Rust
  • Practiced UNIX capability programming, network tool development, and cryptography
December 2022 - May 2023
GS-9

Offensive Operations Tour (continued)

Cooperative Education Development Program

April - August 2022

Offensive Operations Tour

  • Emulated an advanced persistent threat to evaluate defenses of customer networks
  • Conducted recon, gained access, and maintained persistence to meet customer objectives
  • Evaluated customer detection capabilities to determine if defenses alert on the activity
  • Hunted for indicators of compromise in customer networks during the evaluation
January - March 2022

Research & Development Tour

  • Leveraged generative ML (GML) training sets and evolutionary properties across capabilities
  • Investigated GAML applications in the malware analysis domain with academic partners
  • Explored methods to analyze network defense data in cyber GAML-based capabilities
  • Employed GAML algorithms and generated data to produce and evaluate two efficient ML models
May - August 2021
GS-7

Defensive Operations Tour; Go Get 'AM Award

  • Toured with the threat identification & characterization (TIC) team
  • Assigned to attribute unidentified suspicious or malicious digital network activities
  • Worked with other government partners to define TTPs for two threat actor campaigns
  • Assisted with producing 13 activity reports, one selected for organization director briefing
August - December 2020
GS-6

Enterprise Architecture Tour

  • Toured with the learning management system (LMS) team
  • Tasked with implementing QA and security monitoring solutions for the LMS
  • Oversaw the deployment of performance monitoring on three LMS platforms
  • Decreased the team's recurring error and downtime rates by 25% over 5 months

MITRE logo The MITRE Corporation

National Security Engineering Center; Bedford, MA

Network Technology & Security Intern
May - July 2020

MITRE works in the public interest across federal, state, and local governments, as well as industry and academia, to bring innovative ideas into existence in areas such as artificial intelligence, data science, quantum information science, health informatics, space security, policy and economic expertise, trustworthy autonomy, cyber threat sharing, and cyber resilience.

  • Worked with the NSEC FFRDC's Network Automation & Intelligent Control team
  • Responsible for developing next-generation SDNs for national security sponsors
  • Created capabilities to classify and mark traffic in higher-layer network protocols
  • Reduced network traffic overhead and infrastructure cost in DDIL areas

Parsons Corporation logo Parsons Corporation

Cyber Operations, Parsons Government Services; Centreville, VA

Computer Security Engineer Intern
May - August 2021

Parsons is a leading disruptive technology provider in the national security and global infrastructure markets, with capabilities across cyber, space and missile defense, transportation, environmental remediation, urban development, and critical infrastructure protection.

  • Joined Cyber Operations' network simulation and automation team
  • Tasked to assess the success rate and performance of network capabilities
  • Developed a containerized, automated test suite using NIDS technologies
  • Project was deployed across Cyber Operations teams upon completion


Education

DSU logo

Ph.D. Cyber Operations

Dakota State University
Madison, South Dakota
GPA 4.00; 2023 - Present


RIT logo

M.S. Computing Security

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, New York
GPA 4.00; 2019 - 2022
Security analytics concentration
Accelerated Dual Degree
CyberCorps Scholarship for Service
Commencement Delegate
Thesis: Evaluating Machine Learning Approaches to Packed Malware Detection

RIT logo

B.S. Computing Security

Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, New York
GPA 3.68 (Magna Cum Laude); 2017 - 2021
Malware and forensics concentration
Mathematics minor
Honors Program
Dean's List
Capstone: Investigations & Intelligence Cyber Range Course

ATCC logo

A.A. Liberal Arts and Sciences

Alexandria Technical & Community College
Alexandria, Minnesota
GPA 3.97 (Honors); 2015 - 2017
Post-Secondary Enrollment Options
Honors Program
PTK Honor Society 5-Star Member
Dean's List

NHS logo Nevis High School, Minnesota Class of 2017

Diplomas are available on Parchment

I'm giving back the scholarships I earned for my undergraduate education! Currently, I've donated $865 / $19,000 (as of January 2024).


Skills

Languages

Assembly Bash C Java MATLAB P4 PowerShell Python SQL

Technologies

ANB Autopsy Cobalt Strike Cuckoo Docker FTK IDA Kali Jupyter SIFT sklearn Snort Volatility

Communication

Agile Curriculum Development Metacognition Public Speaking Technical Writing


Detailed work experience, classes, and testimonials are available on my Resume


Etcetera

Some fun stuff about me


Travel

DoE CyberForce 2023
DoE CyberForce Competition
St. Charles IL, Nov 2023
City Climb Hudson Yards
City Climb Hudson Yards
New York NY, September 2023
Skydiving IV
Skydiving IV
Midland VA, July 2023
RIT Graduation 2023
RIT Graduation
Rochester NY, May 2023
FIRST Championship
FIRST Championship Volunteering
Houston TX, April 2023
FRC Judging
FRC Regionals/Districts Volunteering VI
Fairfax VA, April 2023
Harry Potter Experience
Harry Potter Experience
Leesburg VA, January 2023
Friendsgiving
Friendsgiving II
Washington DC, November 2022
Honors Orientation
RIT Orientation III
Rochester NY, August 2022
Hiking Great Falls
Hiking Great Falls
Potomac MD, July 2022
Parasailing
Parasailing
Ocean City MD, May 2022
Ocean City SpringFest
Ocean City SpringFest
Ocean City MD, May 2022
RIT Honors Intramural Ultimate
RIT Honors Intramural Ultimate
Rochester NY, November 2021
Geocaching
Geocaching V
Rochester NY, October 2021
Waterfall Hiking
Waterfall Hiking
Ithaca NY, September 2021
Honors trip to Letchworth
Honors trip to Letchworth
Castile NY, September 2021
Outdoor bouldering
Bouldering
Northwest Branch MD, August 2021
Paintball
Paintball
Leesburg VA, August 2021
Independence Day in DC
Independence Day II
Washington DC, July 2021
GCCIS Honors at Malmö University
GCCIS Honors Spring Trip
Malmö Sweden, March 2020
RITSEC and alumni at Shmoocon 2020
Shmoocon 2020
Washington DC, February 2020
SFS Job Fair
CyberCorps Job Fair
Washington DC, January 2020
Best Times Financial Cybersecurity Seminar
Best Times Financial Cybersecurity Seminar
Pittsford NY, November 2019
Rochester Security Summit
Rochester Security Summit
Rochester NY, October 2019
RITSEC trip to Letchworth
RITSEC Trip to Letchworth
Castile NY, September 2019
Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Canada Aviation and Space Museum
Ottawa ON, August 2019
Apollo Anniversary Festival
Apollo Anniversary Festival
Washington DC, July 2019
Washington Nationals Baseball Game
Washington Nationals Game
Washington DC, June 2019
RITSEC IRSeC 2019
Incident Response and Security Competition
Rochester NY, April 2019
Information Security Talent Search
Information Security Talent Search
Rochester NY, March 2019
GCCIS Honors Program trip to Boston
GCCIS Honors Fall Trip
Boston MA, October 2018
RIT CASTLE IMPRESS Summer Experience
IMPRESS Summer Experience
Rochester NY, August 2018
Meeting with White House Officials
White House Scholarship America Advocacy
Washington DC, May 2018
Scholarship America Dreams to Success Awards
Dreams to Success Awards
Washington DC, May 2018
Cholla Trail on Camelback Mountain, Phoenix
Cholla Trail on Camelback Mountain
Phoenix AZ, December 2017
Access Mentoring Workshop
Access Mentoring Workshop
Tempe AZ, December 2017

I occasionally post my travels on YouTube


Quotes

Learning

If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.

Thomas Dewar (debated), Louisville Times, October 1927

I never lose. Either I win or I learn.

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

There's a voice in the universe that holds the truth of all those who walk the earth. I believe that we are born for reasons we do not understand - and it is up to us to discover those reasons. That is your only task. If you are brave enough to sit and listen to the voice of the universe in the silence that lives within you, then you will always know what matters - and you will know too that you matter more to the universe than you will ever know.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, 2021

Kindness

Conquer anger with lack of anger; bad with good; stinginess with a gift; a liar with truth.

Anger, Dhp XVII

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Ayn Rand, Ford Hall Forum: The Moratorium on Brains, November 14th, 1971

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, 1795

Persistence

The question is not who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

Ayn Rand, paraphrased from The Fountainhead, 1943

Be a nuisance where it counts. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics—but never give up.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, GeoJourney, 1980

I am rich no matter what I lose. I'd rather risk it all to find the truth.

Avicii, Our Love (Unreleased), 2016

This whole time, I thought changing the world was something you did, an act you performed, something you fought for. I don't know if that's true any more. What if changing the world was just about being here, by showing up no matter how many times we get told we don't belong, by staying true even when we are shamed into being false, by believing in ourselves even when we're told we're too different? And if we all held on to that, if we refuse to budge and fall in line, if we stood our ground for long enough, just maybe the world can't help but change around us.

Mr. Robot, Hello, Elliot, December 22nd, 2019

Contact

Get in touch with me


[email protected]
(218) 536-1570

Wyatt Tauber, 2024 | View the code for this website on GitHub