Blake R. Swopes 3595 Cambria CT Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 Primary Phone: (805) 405-3965 bswopes@bhodisoft.com Certifications Linux Professional Institute Level 2 - March 2004 Level 1 - April 2001 Experience IT Consultant - January 2003 - Present Thousand Oaks, CA Freelance consulting work for various businesses and individuals in San Diego, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties. Customers include Robinson Computer Service, San Diego Foundation for Change, Stardust Drugs, The Debt Professionals and Technology Sciences Inc. Responsibilities: * Systems/Network Administration * PHP Programming * Desktop Support Accomplishments: * Assisted in a major network redesign at an architectural firm, which increased security and reliability, while remaining transparent to the end users. * Represented clients in the field; performing system installs and maintenance. * Investigated and identified information about an attacker, who had tried to make it appear that a customer was responsible for a number of TOS violations (including sending unsolicited commercial email messages). * Presented a list of suggestions for improvement to a client, including risk management issues that could have saved them from flood damage to their servers and downtime due to accidental database deletion, both of which happened within a week of the presentation. ISE Research Corporation - August 2001 - January 2003 San Diego, CA In business since 1984, ISE Research-ThunderVolt is a San Diego based manufacturer of electric, hybrid-electric and fuel cell drive systems for heavy duty vehicles. Position: IT Manager Responsibilities: * Development, hardening, and maintenance of 5 production servers (Red Hat Linux, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 Server) running a variety of services, and over 30 workstations. Evaluate need for upgrades, new systems. Maintained the PBX, added new lines when necessary. * Worked with management and user groups to develop a strong, yet minimally invasive, security policy. Performed a series of security audits, including testing for weak passwords, evaluating and rewriting existing custom administrative scripts, as well as local and network vulnerability scans. Designed and implemented network-wide backup procedure. Implemented a Network Intrusion Detection System (Snort). Accomplishments: * Developed Linux distribution for use on an embedded Remote Diagnostics Unit (RDU). * Project Manager on a computer interface to a power inverter; the purpose of the interface was to serve as a marketing demo at SFO Airport, informing the public about the Solar Array powering Terminal 1. * Designed integrated web-based (PHP/MySQL) daily task list and time sheet for the company intranet. Robinson Computer Service - July 2000 - August 2001 Simi Valley, CA Robinson Computer Service, founded in 1998, is an Internet consulting firm that specializes in helping small and mid-sized companies develop successful Internet solutions. Services provided by RCS include network design and construction, web design, and web hosting; RCS currently hosts more than 20 domains. Position: Security/System Consultant Responsibilities: * General administration/troubleshooting. Developed several bourne shell scripts for administrative functions. * Designed, Built, and Hardened Red Hat Linux-based DNS, mail and web servers. Maintained existing FreeBSD server. * Developed Perl/CGI/MySQL web-based User and Product Management software in conjunction with existing proprietary libraries. Assisted in the development of a PHP/SQL keyword based search feature for client sites. CNM Network (Consumer Net Marketplace, Inc.) - February 1999 - December 1999 Simi Valley, CA CNM Network Inc. founded in 1996, is a national Internet service provider, and one of the first to provide tested, carrier-quality voice over IP. CNM provides 24 hour, toll-free technical support, and had a support staff of approximately 20 people at the time I was there. Position: Lead Technical Support Representative Responsibilities: * Lead a team of up to five other techs, in order to provide prompt and accurate technical support on multiple platforms. Handled customer requests for a supervisor. Advised new Technical Support Representatives on Customer Service, troubleshooting, and network configurations specific to CNM Network. * Provided technical support to Internet dial-up customers for Windows (9x, NT, 3.1), Macintosh, and Linux systems. Support was provided via telephone, Internet relay chat (IRC), and electronic mail. Accomplishments: * Assisted engineers in the design and testing of multi-platform marketing CD. * Assisted in the design of a Technical Support Skills Exam to assess training needs of current and future Technical Support Representatives. * Designed Frequently Asked Questions pages for Eudora Light and Dial-Up Networking for Windows 9x Systems. Position: Research and Development Team (Graveyard Technical Support) Responsibilities: * Research topics in areas pertinent to the strategic goals of CNM Network, primarily through use of the World Wide Web. * Assisted in the design, implementation, and testing of a publicly accessible networked server application, including uncovering several security issues. Education University of California, Santa Barbara Bachelor of Arts -- Philosophy: June 2000 Moorpark College Associate in Arts -- Social Sciences with Emphasis in Philosophy: August 1996 Associate in Arts -- General Liberal Arts: December 1996 Dean's List: Spring 1994 Thousand Oaks High School High School Diploma: June 1993 Technical Guides Authored You Weren't Hacked... - July 2002 Anecdotes about times when an administrator had believed their system were compromised, but turned out to be misconfigurations. Building a Secure User Environment with SSH ChRootGroups - July 2001 Article introducing SSH ChRootGroups, as well as describing its features, benefits, threats to its security, and how to build a simple chrooted environment. Published by SecurityFocus.com. LinuxSecurity.com's weekly newsletter called it one of the weeks "most interesting articles"(July 30, 2001 - Vol 2, Number 30). TCP Wrappers Misconceptions - July 2000 Introductory security document that discusses TCP Wrappers and its common misuse. General explanation of how TCP Wrappers works in conjunction with inetd; why ipchains should not be ignored, and why hosts.deny doesn't solve all your security concerns. A conversational piece aimed at new Linux users. Published by 2600 Magazine, Summer 2001. FAQ: Firewall Forensics (What am I seeing?) by Robert Graham - June 2000 FAQ created and maintained by Robert Graham. "This document explains what you see in firewall logs, especially what port numbers means ... This document is intended for both security-experts maintaining corporate firewalls as well as home users of personal firewalls." Contributed to the section on remapped ports (Section 1.12). Cable Modem Providers HOWTO by Vladimir Vuksan - April 2000 HOWTO maintained by Vladimir Vuksan. The purpose of this document is to aide Linux users with setting up cable modems; organized based on internet provider. Contributed to the section on GTE Worldwind (Section 3.7). Dial-Up Networking Configuration for Windows 95/98 - 1999 Step-by-step guide to configuring Dial-Up Networking; designed as a supplement for CNM Network Technical Support and inspired the update of the existing CNM Network Frequently Asked Questions page on the topic. Common mistakes and the problems they can create. Screen shots created using Paint Shop Pro 5.0 and Dial-Up Networking 1.3. Spam Lesson, Part One: Protecting Yourself - 1998 Guide to Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. How "Spammers" operate and how to protect yourself from receiving such advertisements. Includes information specific to using newsgroups, web sites, internet relay chat (IRC), and certain target internet service providers (ISP's) such as America Online. NNTP Lesson - 1998 Introduction to the Network News Transfer Protocol, the transfer protocol for Usenet newsgroups. Topics include: how to use NNTP directly (i.e., through telnet, rather than through a news reader, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.). Also, risks associated with using newsgroups - Especially Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (AKA "Spam") and falsified posts to newsgroups - and how to protect yourself with regards to those issues. Related Skills/Experience Operating Systems Administrated Red Hat Linux 6.0- 9 Debian Linux 3.0 Windows 2000 Professional, 2000 Server Windows 95- 98SE, XP Home Edition, XP Professional Windows 3.1 Other OS Experience (User Level/Installation) Red Hat Linux 4.0, 5.0 Slackware Linux 7.0 Windows NT 3.51, 4.0 Unix System V Release 4.0, Solaris 7 FreeBSD 4.0, 4.2 OpenBSD 2.3, 2.6 Internet Server Daemons Apache bind djbdns (dnscache) MySQL qmail smtp + pop3d courier IMAP/IMAPS ssh 1, 2 OpenSSH Samba wu-ftpd Programming/Scripting Languages Recent PHP4 - UNIX Shell Scripting - UNIX (sh, bash, ksh) College C (ANSI) - Win32 and UNIX Java 1.2 - Win32 Perl - UNIX (CGI)