Kayla Hodge's Portfolio

Website Development

Designed and developed website pages using WordPress, creating responsive layouts, organizing navigation, and maintaining a cohesive user experience across the site.

Graphic Design & Branding

Created custom promotional graphics, book collages, logos, and branded visual assets that reinforced the Darkling Press identity and supported marketing efforts.

Content Management

Published and maintained author pages, book collections, and promotional content while ensuring consistent formatting, organization, and accuracy throughout the website.

Author & Book Showcases

Designed engaging author collection pages and book displays that highlighted publications through custom layouts, typography, and imagery.

User Experience (UX) Design

Improved readability, page structure, and navigation to create an intuitive browsing experience while maintaining a consistent visual style.

Website Administration

Performed ongoing website maintenance, content updates, page revisions, media management, and quality assurance to support the continued growth of the publishing platform.

Enterprise Security Assessment

Performed a comprehensive review of an enterprise breach scenario to identify weaknesses across people, processes, technology, and network architecture.

Security Gap Analysis

Identified 24 security deficiencies spanning asset management, wireless security, access control, malware defenses, network monitoring, vulnerability management, and incident response.

CIS Controls Mapping

Mapped identified security weaknesses to relevant CIS Controls v8 to demonstrate how industry best practices mitigate enterprise security risks.

CIS Safeguards Implementation

Recommended specific CIS Safeguards for each identified weakness, providing actionable remediation guidance to strengthen the organization’s security posture.

Enterprise Security Recommendations

Developed prioritized recommendations covering secure configurations, data protection, network segmentation, logging, vulnerability management, access control, malware defenses, employee awareness, and incident response planning.

Vulnerability Scanning

Performed authenticated and unauthenticated vulnerability scans to identify security weaknesses and prioritize remediation efforts.

Exploitation & Validation

Validated vulnerabilities within a controlled lab environment using Metasploit to better understand attacker techniques and exploit impact.

Web Application Security Testing

Tested intentionally vulnerable web applications (DVWA) to identify common web security issues and observe exploitation methods.

Vulnerability Analysis

Analyzed Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), interpreted CVSS scores, and evaluated vulnerability severity using industry-standard scoring methodologies.

Security Hardening

Applied remediation strategies and validated security improvements through follow-up testing and vulnerability reassessment.

Firewall Configuration

Configured and managed an OPNsense firewall to enforce network security policies, control inbound and outbound traffic, and strengthen perimeter defenses through rule creation and secure configuration.

Network Segmentation

Designed segmented network environments to isolate critical systems, reduce attack surfaces, and limit lateral movement in accordance with defense-in-depth principles.

Identity & Access Management

Implemented AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to create users, groups, and policies while applying least privilege and role-based access control to secure cloud resources.

Zero Trust Security

Applied Zero Trust concepts by verifying user and device access, minimizing implicit trust, and enforcing authentication and authorization before granting access to protected resources.

Vulnerability Assessment

Conducted vulnerability scans using Nessus to identify security weaknesses, analyze risk, prioritize remediation efforts, and validate security improvements after mitigation.

Secure Network Architecture

Developed secure network designs that incorporated layered security controls, firewall protection, segmentation, and access management to support enterprise security objectives.

Google Dork Investigation

Performed advanced Google Dork searches to identify publicly accessible documents, directories, and information that could contribute to an organization’s digital exposure. The investigation demonstrated how publicly indexed resources may unintentionally reveal internal-use information.

Internet Infrastructure Reconnaissance

Collected and analyzed publicly available infrastructure data using Shodan to identify internet-facing IP addresses, exposed services, and commonly used network ports associated with the target organization.

SSL/TLS Certificate Analysis

Utilized Censys to examine publicly available SSL/TLS certificates, providing insight into domains, subdomains, and encrypted services supporting the organization’s external infrastructure.

Historical Website Analysis

Leveraged the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to review historical versions of the organization’s website, identifying changes in public-facing content and evaluating how archived information contributes to an organization’s digital footprint.

Threat Intelligence Collection

Collected and evaluated current cybersecurity intelligence from reputable industry sources to identify significant threats impacting government, enterprise, and consumer environments.

Threat & Risk Analysis

Analyzed emerging cyber threats to determine potential organizational impact, assess risk, and identify defensive measures to reduce exposure.

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Mapped adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to the MITRE ATT&CK framework to better understand attack progression and support defensive planning.

Intelligence Recommendations

Developed actionable security recommendations, remediation priorities, and next-step intelligence requirements to improve organizational resilience against evolving threats.

Intelligence Reporting

Compiled findings into a structured Cyber Threat Intelligence report to communicate technical risks, threat trends, and strategic recommendations to leadership.

Executive Incident Assessment

Evaluated identified security vulnerabilities and their potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability while communicating risks to organizational leadership.

Vulnerability Analysis

Analyzed security weaknesses affecting the Full Sail One application and assessed how exploited vulnerabilities could expose sensitive institutional data.

Risk Assessment

Evaluated the likelihood and business impact of identified security issues while prioritizing risks based on organizational exposure and operational consequences.

Remediation Planning

Developed recommendations to reduce organizational risk through corrective actions, security improvements, and vulnerability mitigation strategies.

Incident Reporting

Prepared a formal cybersecurity incident report documenting findings, executive summaries, risk analysis, and recommended response actions for stakeholders.

Let’s Connect!

If you’d like to discuss my experience, projects, or potential opportunities, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.