Highly motivated and dedicated Naval Flight Officer with 8 years of experience in providing safe and effective air support to various military operations. Has a track record of success in managing complex systems and performing critical tasks in high-pressure environments. Skilled in analyzing data, identifying patterns, and making decisions quickly and accurately. Adept at communicating complex information to diverse audiences and working collaboratively with team members to achieve shared goals. Possess strong leadership skills and the ability to manage complex tasks and projects. Holds an Information Technology degree and has a deep understanding of software engineering, network administration, and cloud engineering with the respective certifications in each field. Committed to continuously improving my knowledge and skills to meet the changing demands of the industry.
I'm John Richard Bryant, a tech-savvy leader in the Navy. I fly unmanned aircraft (MQ-4C Triton) and maritime patrol planes (P-8A), using my IT skills to manage missions, networks, and training programs. I'm experienced with AWS cloud platforms, virtualization (VMware), security protocols, and even built a programming visualization tool to help others learn code. Basically, I keep the Navy's high-tech operations running smoothly.
Leveraging a robust infrastructure on Amazon Web Services (AWS), I deployed a static website. I established a dedicated hosted zone in Route 53, a fully managed DNS service, to manage the DNS records for my domain. This hosted zone served as the central hub for routing traffic to the appropriate resources, ensuring seamless navigation to my website. To guarantee secure HTTPS connections, I obtained and managed an SSL/TLS certificate through Certificate Manager (ACM). The website's static content was hosted on an S3 bucket. A CI/CD pipeline, orchestrated by a GitHub Actions workflow, automated the deployment process. To grant the workflow necessary permissions to deploy to the S3 bucket, I crafted a detailed IAM role policy using YAML. This policy meticulously outlined the specific actions, resources, and conditions required for the workflow to interact with the S3 bucket securely and efficiently. By leveraging this fine-grained access control, I ensured the integrity and confidentiality of the website's content. To optimize global delivery and minimize latency, I utilized a CloudFront distribution, effectively caching and distributing content worldwide.
To further enhance the security posture of the website, I incorporated principles from the MITRE ATT&CK framework. By understanding the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) employed by adversaries, I implemented specific security controls to mitigate potential threats, such as:
Input validation to mitigate injection attacks (T1004)
Web Application Firewall (WAF) to block common web attacks (T1005)
Regular security patching to address vulnerabilities (T1013)
Robust monitoring and logging (T1591) for early incident detection
Regular security assessments to identify and address potential weaknesses
Secure data in transit using SSL/TLS and monitor S3 bucket access logs for suspicious activity (T1041)
Implement proper IAM roles, access keys management, and encryption for sensitive data to mitigate initial access attempts (T1071)
Avoid deploying unverified or insecure code and ensure that GitHub workflows are properly validated and scanned for vulnerabilities to prevent execution of malicious code (T1203)
Ensured compliance with security standards by adhering to AWS security best practices, minimizing attack surfaces, and incorporating continuous monitoring for rapid threat detection and incident response.
By combining these security measures with the MITRE ATT&CK framework, I significantly reduced the attack surface and strengthened the overall security posture of the website.
Website Views Counter
I successfully implemented a serverless solution to track website views using AWS. I wrote a Python-based AWS Lambda function that interacted with a DynamoDB table to store and update the view count. The function, which utilized the boto3 library, retrieved the current count, incremented it by one, and updated the database. I exposed this functionality via an AWS Lambda Function URL, simplifying the API Gateway integration and enabling seamless HTTP requests. Additionally, I wrote the JavaScript code to dynamically fetch the updated view count from the API and display it on the website in real-time. This integration ensured a smooth user experience. The solution was monitored and logged using Amazon CloudWatch, providing reliable insights into performance and usage metrics. This project demonstrated my ability to design, develop, and deploy scalable, serverless systems on AWS.
Built a self-hosted cloud storage system
I built a self-hosted cloud storage system using AWS and FileCloud Community Edition, leveraging my expertise with a range of AWS tools. I deployed and configured an EC2 instance, selecting a custom Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and managing secure key pairs for SSH access. I integrated Amazon S3 for scalable and cost-effective data storage, creating buckets and configuring IAM roles and policies to enable secure access. I meticulously crafted YAML files to define the IAM policies, ensuring precise permissions for FileCloud's interaction with the S3 bucket. By exploring AWS storage tiers, including Glacier, I optimized costs and performance. Additionally, I generated a CSR with OpenSSL, set up a custom domain through Cloudflare, and configured HTTPS with an SSL certificate. This project highlights my proficiency in key AWS services—EC2, S3, IAM, and more—along with my expertise in Linux system management, enterprise cloud storage deployment, and infrastructure as code principles to create secure and scalable infrastructure solutions.
Code Visualizer tool
As part of a group project for the Naval Academy, I developed a Code Visualizer tool to assist Computer Science and Cyber Operations students in learning programming concepts visually. This interactive tool, built with HTML, CSS, and advanced JavaScript, provides visual representations of key concepts such as the stack, function calls, and memory management. We employed Object-Oriented Programming principles to create a dynamic and user-friendly interface. The tool features SVG graphics for clear visualizations, file saving capabilities, and customizable styles for personalized learning experiences. This project successfully demonstrates my collaborative skills and proficiency in front-end development, interactive design, and the creation of effective learning tools. GitHub link
Received my Comptia Security+ Certification
I passed the CompTIA Security+ exam, demonstrating my knowledge and skills in a variety of cybersecurity domains. I gained a solid understanding of fundamental security concepts such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability, as well as the ability to recognize and address common threats and vulnerabilities. I am well-versed in industry-standard security frameworks and best practices, enabling me to implement effective security measures. Furthermore, I have a strong grasp of network security, system and application security, cloud security, identity and access management, cryptography, and security operations. This knowledge allows me to analyze complex security scenarios, identify potential risks, and recommend appropriate solutions to safeguard systems and data.
Received my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner & Solutions Architect Certifications
I passed both the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and AWS Certified Solutions Architect exams, demonstrating my comprehensive understanding of the AWS Cloud platform. I have gained practical knowledge of core AWS services, including EC2, S3, VPC, and IAM. I can design and deploy scalable and reliable cloud solutions, optimizing resource utilization and minimizing costs. Additionally, I am proficient in identifying and mitigating security risks, ensuring compliance with industry standards and best practices. With this expertise, I am confident in my ability to leverage the power of AWS to drive innovation and business growth.
