Although I am still a learner in the field of cybersecurity, I really enjoy doing challenges to learn more techniques and become familiar with certain terms and situations.

Platforms like TryHackMe and HackTheBox are great for this since this is where I started learning more about cybersecurity. These platforms and others like OverTheWire and PicoCTF, make learning fun and interactive by gamifying the learning process.

I am actively working on these platforms to improve my skills and knowledge in cybersecurity. You can follow my activities via my account on TryHackMe and HackTheBox.

CTFs (Capture The Flag) are also a great way to learn more about cybersecurity. I have participated in a few CTFs and similar events, like:

• Hack The Box - Cyber Apocalypse 2025
• TryHackMe - Hackfinity 2025
• Belgian Defense - Cyber Summer School 2025

• Multiple topics in Cybersecurity like reverse engineering and forensics.
• Thinking out-of-the-box to find solutions to challenges.
• Team communication during CTF challenges.
• Pentesting for HTB machines.

During these CTFs, I have contributed by solving challenges. Since most of the time these events are team-based, different roles are assigned to each member for the different categories the challenges are divided into. My favorite categories during these events are:

• Forensics
• OSINT
• Reverse engineering

I also try to help my teammates with other categories, but these are the ones I am most comfortable with. Most of the time there is someone in the team who is more experienced in a certain category, so I try to learn from them and understand how they solved the challenge.

Using four old desktops I once got for free, I decided to turn them into servers for my home lab. The goal of this project was to learn more about how to set up and maintain servers after. Now that I have some experience with servers, I can use this home lab to test new technologies and learn more about them.

This project started with a single desktop running Ubuntu Server and serving as a storage server. At this time, the lab consists of four desktops, each with a different role:

• PC1 (show specs)

  This desktop runs Proxmox, a hypervisor that can create virtual machines and containers to run services.

  • CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1270 v3
  • RAM: 16GB DDR3
  • Storage: 3TB (6x500GB HDD)
  • GPU: Asus 9600 GT
• PC2 (show specs)

  Another Proxmox server that functions within the same cluster as PC1.

  • CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1270 v3
  • RAM: 16GB DDR3
  • Storage: 3TB (6x500GB HDD)
• PC3 (show specs)

  This is the storage server and now uses TrueNAS to maintain all my data and the data of all the other PC's using NFS.

  • CPU: Intel Xeon E3 1270 v3
  • RAM: 4GB DDR3
  • Storage: 3TB (6x500GB HDD)
• PC4 (show specs)

  This PC has Ubuntu Desktop installed and is used for automation projects. One of the projects is a bot that can play through Pokemon Emerald.

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-750
  • RAM: 16GB DDR3
  • Storage: 500GB HDD
  • GPU: Nvidia K2000

Although the hardware is not the newest, it is still capable of working and teaching me about servers and virtualization. This home labs was used to host my SOC project and could keep running it without any issues. The project is still ongoing and is still being used. I am planning to add and change the servers in the future.

Since this project has been started over a year ago and is still progressing, I have learned a lot during this journey. To summarize the learned skills and used technologies, I kept it more general.

• Networks
• Virtualization
• Operating Systems
• PC Building & PC Hardware

The goal of this project was to set up a small SOC environment that could be used to monitor and analyze security events. This was done by setting up a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system that could collect and analyze logs from different sources. The SIEM system used in this project is Wazuh, which is an open-source SIEM system that can be used to monitor and analyze security events.

To host this project, I used my own home lab. This way I made use of server to learn more about the set up for virtual machines in Proxmox. Another option was to make use of the servers from the datacenter of Thomas More, but I wanted to use my own hardware.

To test the effectiveness of the SOC, I used Caldera to simulate attacks and see how the SOC would respond to them. This was part of the assigment of the project and demonstrated how attacks can be detected. This shows the other way of a pentest and what traces are left behind, which I found very interesting and educational.

To counter the attacks, a SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) system was used to automate the response to the attacks. Wazuh would detect the attacks and send them to the SOAR system, in this case, Shuffle. Shuffle would then automate a workflow that sends the alert to multiple tools like TheHive, Discord, and MISP. Afterwards, the alerts could be analyzed in TheHive, and Pfsense would create the necessary firewall rules to block the attack.

• Various tools like Wazuh, TheHive, Shuffle, Etc.
• Traces that attacks leave behind and are logged in the SOC.
• Communication between multiple VMs to create a workflow.

This is by far my favorite project I have done in my second year IT at Thomas More. It serves as a great introduction for students who have chosen the specialization "Cloud and Cybersecurity".

The web application was created by the teachers and had a handful of vulnerabilities in it. The goal was to find these vulnerabilities and write a report about them.

Before I started pentesting the application, I used it as normal to see what the application does and how it works. After a short time, I already found some Insecure Direct Object References (IDORs). After this, I started using Burp Suite to test the input fields.

After some testing, I found a couple of vulnerabilities. Then it was time to write a report about them. The report was structured so that even non-technical people could understand it and see the urgency of addressing the issues.

• OWASP Methodologies
• Basic web pentesting techniques
• Working with tools like BurpSuite and more
• Making a report about the findings
• Bringing a technical explaination to a non-technical audience

The goal of this course was to set up a hosting platform in a team of five members. This needed to be on the servers in a new datacenter. Before we could start, we had to set up the servers in the datacenter during another course the previous semester.

To make this happen, we have created a frontend that users can log in to and drop their files that need to be hosted. These files reach a storage server using an API. Once stored, they will be used by Docker to be put in a container and hosted. This process was automated and every uploaded docker-compose file was contained in a different container.

We configured the servers with virtualization software and are using VMWare to manage them. The storage servers run TrueNAS and are connected to the VMWare cluster using NFS.

• The flow of how webhosting works
• Frontend + Backend communication
• VMWare & virtualization
• Team communication and task dividing
• Project-based working with DevOps

Since this was a five-person project, we had to divide the tasks. I was responsible for the frontend/backend communication and server maintainence. This meant that I had to create the API that the frontend could use to communicate with the backend.

My teammates were responsible for the frontend itself, server setup, DevOps and the Docker automation.

I reused an ESP32 that I had lying around from a previous project and decided to make another small project out of it. One of the things that caught my eye was a project from a user called justcallmekoko on GitHub.

The repository contains the firmware for this device and also a vague guide on how to make it. I had some old cables lying around and made a scuffed version of the device.

With the device, it is possible to find access points, create a flood of access points (including a rickroll one!), deauth devices, and much more. It is also possible to host a free Wi-Fi access point with a fake login page that can be used for phishing.

With this device, I can demonstrate scenario's to people who are interested in this and teach them something about cybersecurity.

• ESP32 coding in C
• Electronics and cabling
• Provide technical explanations to non-technical audiences