Allen Byrne

Cybersecurity student — Scott Community College

Me

Allen Byrne

About Me

Cybersecurity student with a passion for GRC and real-world impact

Introduction

Hi, I’m Allen Byrne — a cybersecurity student at Scott Community College with a strong foundation in computers, a passion for learning, and a growing focus on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). I’ve been inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and invited to join the National Society of Leadership and Success, reflecting my commitment to academic excellence and personal growth.

Background

My interest in GRC stems from my background in Safety and Health management, where I gained hands-on experience with risk assessment, regulatory compliance, and operational integrity. That experience now fuels my transition into cybersecurity, where I’m eager to apply those same principles to digital environments.

Personal Values

I’m health-conscious and spend my free time hiking with my wife, exercising, and enjoying nature. I believe in balance — growing professionally while staying grounded personally. I approach every challenge with determination, curiosity, and a desire to help others grow alongside me.

Closing Note

Thank you for visiting my site and taking the time to learn about me. I appreciate the effort it took to get here, and I look forward to connecting, collaborating, and discovering how we can grow together.

Resume

Resume: 📄 Download My Resume

Projects

Wazuh SIEM Deployment

Practical security monitoring in a real lab environment

Overview

I deployed a Wazuh-based SIEM in my lab to gain hands-on experience with endpoint monitoring, log analysis, and alerting. The goal was not to build a SIEM from scratch, but to stand up a clean, stable deployment, resolve broken repository issues, and get a reliable security monitoring stack running end-to-end.

This project reflects how security tooling is actually used in practice: deploying the platform, connecting agents, validating log flow, and using dashboards to investigate real activity.

What I did

  • Clean Wazuh deployment: Removed failed installs and broken repos, then rebuilt Wazuh from a clean state to ensure a stable, reproducible environment.
  • Agent onboarding: Connected Linux and other lab endpoints to forward system logs, authentication events, and security-related activity into the SIEM.
  • Configuration and verification: Validated that alerts, rule groups, and PCI DSS mappings were working as expected by reviewing dashboards and sample activity.
  • Threat hunting practice: Used the dashboards to explore alert trends, authentication patterns, and rule groups, building an investigation workflow similar to a SOC environment.

Key skills demonstrated

  • Troubleshooting: Cleaning up broken repositories and failed installs, then rebuilding correctly.
  • Platform understanding: Working with Wazuh components, agents, and alerting to understand how they fit together.
  • Log and alert analysis: Interpreting alerts, rule groups, and PCI DSS mappings for practical monitoring.
  • Investigation workflow: Using dashboards to pivot between alerts, authentication events, and rule groups.

Selected screenshots

Below are example views from the environment, taken from my lab deployment. They show real alert and authentication activity generated during testing and tuning.

Threat hunting dashboard showing alert groups, authentication events, and PCI DSS mappings.
Threat hunting dashboard displaying alert group evolution, alert levels over time, top alerts, rule groups, and PCI DSS requirements.
Threat hunting dashboard highlighting alert group evolution and top PCI DSS-related alerts.
Additional view of the SIEM environment used for exploring alert trends, authentication activity, and compliance-related mappings.

Service Platform — Role-Based Admin Dashboard (Flask)

Backend-first architecture for real administrative workflows

Overview

This project is a backend-first service platform built with Flask, designed to support real administrative workflows for small business IT environments. It includes authentication, role-based access control, user management, and a modular dashboard architecture that can scale into systems tracking, log visibility, and future integrations.

Key Features

  • GRC-compliant authentication with enforced password policy (length, character types, complexity).
  • Role-based access control with strict separation between admin and user capabilities.
  • Admin dashboard for managing users, resetting passwords, and assigning roles.
  • User-only accounts tested to confirm privilege boundaries and prevent unauthorized access.
  • Modular layout with dedicated sections for Users, Systems, Logs, and Settings.
  • Clean backend architecture using blueprints, templates, and a reproducible project structure.

Technical Notes

This platform wasn’t built from a template — it was developed from scratch and hardened through real debugging. I worked through import conflicts, template rendering failures, and silent errors that required forensic troubleshooting. Every issue was resolved without shortcuts, preserving state and maintaining a clean, extensible codebase.

Status

Core backend functionality is complete and stable. The next phase includes expanding the Systems module, adding log visibility, and preparing the platform for deployment.

Selected screenshots

These views show the dashboard and user management panels from the live backend, confirming role separation and admin-only controls.

Dashboard view with system status and total users
Dashboard view showing system status and total users.
User management panel with roles and admin-only controls
User management panel with role assignments and admin-only password reset controls.

Contact

Let’s connect and build something great together!

Message Me

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