Welcome to Bako Security

I flunked my way into information security. Not literally, but close enough.

My freshman year at Indiana University (go Hoosiers), I was an accounting major who was not doing well in school. So I took a wild chance and switched to computer science, mostly because it was the closest thing to an engineering degree without having to transfer schools. In hindsight, that was a much bigger risk than I realized at the time. I had never written a line of code in my life, and my technical skillset spanned about as deep as sending an email.

Instantly, I was hooked. The stark contrast and fresh new technical challenges truly peaked my interest. I was excited to go to class, excited to do my homework, and I even did extra credit. If you’d had known me as an accounting major just a month prior, this would’ve sounded insane.

Now, I’m a SOC L2 analyst working in my hometown, investigating threats and working to improve my organization’s security posture every day. I’m still just as, if not more, passionate about information security. I’ve spent the last year building and operating a small security homelab. It runs on a mix of virtual machines and physical hardware, using SIEM, SOAR, and IDS technologies, some of the same tools I work with every day in the office. This has allowed me to explore curiosities and help develop my technical depth.

I created this blog, Bako Security, to document what I’ve learned, showcase projects, and dig into things that I’m actively interested in. My goal is to release a new post every other week. A few posts I’m planning for the upcoming weeks are:

• My recent Hack The Box certification
• Basic memory dump analysis with Volatility3
• A Hack The Box blue team CTF writeup
• Building detection searches in Splunk and Suricata

Got questions, feedback, or just want to talk shop? Find me on LinkedIn or email me at blake@bakosecurity.com. I’d love to hear what you’re working on, swap ideas, and exchange insights.