Philip Zangara

SOC Analyst | Blue Team · Detection Engineering | Splunk · Suricata · MITRE ATT&CK

About

I run Suricata on a Raspberry Pi on my home network because I want to know what’s actually on it, not just what my router dashboard says.

That curiosity is what drives my work in blue team security. I build detection infrastructure, tune rules against real traffic, and document everything publicly so others can follow the same path.

My current projects include a Splunk CTI dashboard correlating AlienVault OTX threat intelligence against live Sysmon endpoint telemetry, and a home NIDS running Suricata on a Raspberry Pi 4 with alerts forwarded to Splunk via a port-mirrored switch. I validate detections by simulating adversary techniques with Atomic Red Team and write about what I find at this site.

Professionally, I bring experience in SIEM operations, alert triage, MITRE ATT&CK-based threat contextualization, and Python and PowerShell automation. During my M.S. program I led an enterprise AlienVault SIEM deployment covering risk assessment, dashboard design, and policy development.

I am currently seeking SOC Analyst and MDR roles focused on detection engineering, alert triage, and incident response.

Education

• M.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance – Western Governors University

• B.A.S. in Cybersecurity – St. Petersburg College

• CompTIA SecurityX, PenTest+, CySA+, Security+, A+

• Splunk Core Certified Power User, Core Certified User

• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

• Microsoft AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals)

• Security Blue Team – Blue Team Level 1

• (ISC)² Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)