Resume
CompTIA Security+ certified cybersecurity student (4.0 GPA) with hands-on experience in threat detection, phishing analysis, and cloud security automation in a regulated healthcare environment.
Security+ earned May 2026. Verify on Credly.
- Cincinnati, OH
- knechtaj@mail.uc.edu
- GitHub
Download the PDF, updated .
Experience
IT security and infrastructure co-op
AtriCure, Mason, OH · May 2026 – Aug 2026
- Uncovered a dangling DNS record exposing the production environment to subdomain takeover, by building an Azure Function App that ingests 51 Cloudflare security insight classes into Microsoft Sentinel through a webhook and a custom data collection rule.
- Reduced phishing investigation turnaround by about 35% across 200+ monitored mailboxes by triaging and dispositioning suspicious email daily with Microsoft Defender XDR Threat Explorer, ANY.RUN, and VirusTotal.
- Built a KnowBe4 phishing simulation analytics dashboard covering 40+ departments, presented to VP leadership and escalated to the executive leadership team.
- Identified and blocked a cloud storage application posing a data exfiltration risk by auditing 200+ unsanctioned cloud apps with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and McasShadowItReporting KQL queries.
- Audited SSO configuration and authentication protocols (SAML and OIDC) across 335 Entra-integrated cloud applications, finding 4 apps with expired SAML certificates and 8 operating without SSO.
Shift leader
Graeter's, West Chester, OH · Jul 2025 – present
- Cut new-hire ramp-up time by about half by designing and delivering structured onboarding for 13 rotating team members covering compliance, procedures, and performance standards.
- Sustained 97% customer satisfaction across 500+ weekly interactions while running shift operations and resolving escalations.
Certifications
- May 2026
- Aug 2026
- TestOut Ethical Hacker Pro · TestOut
- TestOut Hybrid Server Pro: Core · TestOut
Projects
Azure Sentinel honeypot
Jun 2026
- Captured 3,500+ brute-force authentication attempts from 8 countries within 24 hours by deploying an exposed Azure VM and ingesting its logs into Microsoft Sentinel.
- Built a live attacker geolocation map in a Sentinel workbook using KQL enrichment.
Pi-hole DNS server
Mar 2026
- Self-hosted Pi-hole on an Ubuntu Server VM to filter ad and tracker traffic for every device on the home network.
- Gained DNS-level filtering, real-time query logging, and traffic visibility across the network.
Python document processing automation
Dec 2025
- Cut document processing time by 80% for a small insurance business with a custom Python script.
- Parsed and extracted data from 1,000+ insurance documents.
Education
B.S. Cybersecurity
University of Cincinnati · Expected summer 2028
GPA 4.00. Dean's list, all semesters.
Coursework: Network security, Database management, Network infrastructure management, System administration.
Skills
- Security platforms
- Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Microsoft Purview, Stellar Cyber, Zscaler, KnowBe4
- Cloud and identity
- Microsoft Azure, Entra ID, Identity and access management, Cloudflare
- Analysis
- ANY.RUN, VirusTotal, SIEM, log analysis
- Languages and APIs
- KQL, PowerShell, Python, Microsoft Graph API
- Systems and networking
- Linux/Unix, Windows Server administration, TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SSL/TLS
- Practices
- incident response, threat detection, phishing analysis, risk assessment, compliance