Background
About Howard
I'm a cybersecurity professional with over four years of hands-on experience defending enterprise networks and a foundation built at the state level environment. My background combines executive government level discipline with practitioner-level expertise in modern SOC tooling.
I specialize in threat hunting, SIEM tool administration, and CrowdStrike EDR operations. I'm equally comfortable briefing a CISO and various C-Suite level executives on an active incident.
Outside the SOC, I write about detection engineering concepts and share tooling on GitHub aimed at helping defenders work smarter. I am actively engaged in policy, procedure, standards and playbooks for SOC foundational creation. I believe the best security teams are built on clear communication, rigorous process, and an attacker's mindset.
Quick Facts
Career
Experience
2022 – Present
Security Analyst
State of Kansas — Security Operations
- › Support public-sector SOC operations, incident response, threat hunting, and agency coordination.
- › Use Splunk, CrowdStrike Falcon, Sophos, Darktrace, Recorded Future, Microsoft 365/O365 logs, Tanium, and ServiceNow to investigate alerts and document findings.
- › Assist with endpoint protection, identity-related investigations, suspicious login reviews, phishing response, vulnerability awareness, and security escalation.
- › Contribute to SOC playbooks, workbooks, SOPs, templates, and repeatable response processes.
2022
SOC Intern
State of Kansas — Security Operations
- › Monitored and documented security events using Splunk and ServiceNow.
- › Supported senior analysts with alert triage, threat intelligence review, and incident documentation.
- › Assisted with CrowdStrike readiness, endpoint visibility, and SOC process development.
- › Built foundational experience in public-sector cybersecurity operations and agency support.
2003 – 2022
General Manager
Shoe Carnival — Operations & People Leadership
- › Led store operations, team development, customer service, financial controls, and daily business execution.
- › Coached and mentored employees, managed performance, resolved issues, and supported operational improvement.
- › Built strong communication, leadership, accountability, and decision-making skills that now support cybersecurity response and stakeholder coordination.
- › Transitioned into cybersecurity with a focus on SOC operations, incident response, and practical security problem solving.