extended bio

My name is Nicholas Kleespies and I live in Tampa, Florida. I’ve always been interested in computers and technology, so I knew that when I started college I wanted to get into Cybersecurity. I started with an AS in Cybersecurity at HCC and transferred to USF where I’m completing a BS in Information Science. The topics covered in the courses I took for my BSIS had to do with ethical hacking, databases, active directory, and other data/information concepts. Over the course of my education at USF, I’ve learned a lot of different skills, coding languages, networking certifications, and tools. My first certification I earned was HackTheBox’s Certified Bug Bounter Hunter (CBBH) certification. This took months to complete all of the modules and then I had to take an exam that lasted 7 days where I had to gain authorized access on 5 different machines and write a report on all the vulnerabilities I found. Completing this certificaiton gave me confidence that I could use the skills I learned in school to make a career for myself. Eventually, I applied to join USF’s cybersecurity team Cyberherd. On this team I competed in competitions around the nation and placed fairly high at most of them. Cyberherd also offered me many opportunities to learn new skills, tools, and coding languages, as well as practice and hone what I already know. This environment really helped me stay motivated to continue learning and becoming more qualified in the cybersecurity field. I knew little to nothing about Linux, programming, or networking before starting college, but now I can confidently say I am knowledgable and could even teach some concepts to new learners. The coding langauge classes I took taught me a lot about programming in C and java. C was especially useful to learn because I feel like it is the mother of all programming. Most modern coding languages are just wrappers for C, making them much slower but more modular and simpler to use with modern technologies and tools. Additionally, learning how terminals and consoles worked and how I could use them productively was a huge hurdle. I was always used to GUIs growing up, so memorizing commands and flags and BASH in general was foreign to me, but after I started to get the hang of it I realized how powerful shells are. I also began to understand all of the network services and protocols such as TCP/IP, SSH, RDP, FTP, SMB, HTTP(S), and many others. Over the course of my time at USF I attended classes that taught me brand new concepts, and I’m glad I took them. Learning these skills allowed me to become comfortable in the cybersecurity field and I look forward to using my knowledge in the workforce. I was able to work as an intern for CyberFlorida assisting as a SOC student analyst. This internship taught me a lot about professioanl Blue Team cybersecurity fields and what they’ll look like once I secure a full-time position. I encourage you to look through my portfolio to see more of my experience and work, thanks for reading!