I’m Robert Perez, an entry-level QA Engineer studying cybersecurity. I’m finishing a B.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance at WGU (expected Dec 2026), and I spend my own time working across the blue team and offensive sides of security, with a focus on SIEM-based detection, Active Directory attacks, and Windows internals. I’m aiming for SOC analyst work.
Experience
QA / Test Engineer — mobile app development studio (contract) · May 2026 – present Manual and automated QA across mobile and web applications on two concurrent client projects. I build automated test suites and run manual testing, and work directly with developers and stakeholders to ship quality releases. When access-control or permissions issues (RBAC and similar) come up in testing, I flag them and track them in ClickUp through to resolution.
This site is the plain-English companion to my security-lab-portfolio repository on GitHub. The repo holds the detailed walkthroughs; this site translates them into beginner-friendly writeups that emphasize concepts and methodology over flag values.
Quick Links
- GitHub: github.com/barrytd
- LinkedIn: robert-perezpereda
- TryHackMe: bxrry
- Resume: robert-perez-resume.pdf
- Email: through LinkedIn DM or opening an issue on the portfolio repo
Certifications
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA A+
- CompTIA Project+
- LPI Linux Essentials
- ITIL 4 Foundation
What I Work With
Offensive: Nmap, Burp Suite, Hydra, Metasploit, BloodHound, Impacket, mimikatz, Responder, GTFOBins methodology, John the Ripper, hashcat.
Blue Team: Splunk, Kibana / ELK, Wireshark, Sysmon, Windows Event Forwarding, MITRE ATT&CK mapping, EventID 4688 / 4624 / 4720 hunting.
Languages and Tooling: Python, PowerShell, Bash, Linux administration, Active Directory, Windows Server.
Notable Projects
- security-lab-portfolio — every lab on this site, with the longer technical walkthroughs.
- Pulse — Windows event log analyzer with live monitoring, MITRE ATT&CK mapping, fleet management, and firewall blocking. Built in Python with a FastAPI backend and web dashboard.
- Cybersecurity Toolbox — a collection of security tools and scripts for defensive and offensive operations, written in Python.
Why “No Spoilers”
The rooms I write about live on TryHackMe, VulnHub, and similar platforms whose value depends on first-time learners working through the puzzles themselves. Posting flag values online breaks that for everyone behind me, and platforms occasionally enforce against accounts that do it. The methodology, the why, and the what to do differently as a defender are the parts that actually generalize, so those are the parts I keep.
If you find a writeup useful, the best thing you can do is go run the room yourself, hit the same wall I did, and let the methodology guide you to your answer.
How To Reach Me
The fastest way is through LinkedIn or by opening an issue on the portfolio repo.