Private Company

I design and manage security solutions aligned with business goals. I deploy, optimize, and manage network security technologies, contribute to vulnerability assessments, support compliance assessments and audits (ISO 27001, SOC 2, DORA, SEC), and facilitate incident response.

Current Tech Stack
Check Point FW, Palo Alto FW, Fortigate FW, Cisco ASA, F5, NGINX, Akamai Guardicore, RedHat ACS, RedHat OpenShift, Zscaler, Cisco R&S, Squid, Elastic Search, Kibana, Logstash, Nozomi, Claroty, Splunk SIEM, Exabeam, SOAR, Tenable Nessus, Qualys, Ubuntu Server, MS Azure, Keycloak, Okta, Azure DevOps, Ansible, Phoenix Contact mGuard Remote Access, Propius Machine Selector, OpenVPN, Docker, Kubernetes, Security Scorecard

What I've done so far:
● Managed the external Vulnerability Posture of the organization and raised the reputation from D to A
● Implemented advanced micro-segmentation strategies and optimized firewall/IPS configurations, reducing lateral threat movement (90%), unauthorized access (65%), and false positives (95%).
● Designed, implemented, and optimized network security solutions, security operations, and incident response processes, and led incident response efforts resulting in:
- 40% reduction in mean time to detection (MTTD) and 60% faster incident resolution times
- 95% decrease in false positive alerts through refined detection rules and automated threat details enrichment
● Worked with project teams to help build secure architecture designs and develop SOC security architectures
● Designed processes to implement the information security policies.
● Supported ISO 27001, SOC 2, DORA, and SEC audits through documentation, security control implementation, and audit response; led industry-specific remediation (e.g., MasterCard's RiskRecon).
● Contributed to the development of business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans
● Designed and led business continuity and disaster recovery tests.

Cybersecurity Architecture & Engineering Consultant 

Bridging Gaps

Bridging Gaps' mission is to bridge the gap between potential and performance through expert career mentoring and coaching, empowering mid-management professionals in IT, Consulting, and Services sectors to achieve their highest potential.

What I do: 
Pro bono career coaching and mentorship for IT and Tech Professionals.
I work pro bono to help individuals design and build fulfilling careers, whether they're aspiring cybersecurity professionals breaking into the field or individuals seeking a more meaningful career shift.
I provide personalized guidance on career transitions, technical skill development, and certification strategies while supporting job search optimization, professional growth, and long-term career fulfillment.

Career Design and Transformation Partner

Honeywell

I led the design and optimization of security solutions across multiple platforms (Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point). I focused on network security, IPS fine-tuning, and security automation while managing vulnerability assessments, incident response, and providing mentorship to enhance the organization's security posture.

● Designed and advised on complex technical solutions across a range of vendors, including Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point, and Juniper, ensuring robust security architectures for diverse client environments.
● Mentored interns and delivered internal technical training sessions, enhancing team capabilities and fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.
● Implemented and fine-tuned security policies on critical devices such as Cisco ASA, Checkpoint FW (R77.30, R80), and Palo Alto FW, strengthening overall network security posture.
● Automated repetitive tasks using custom scripting, improving operational efficiency and reducing manual workload for the cybersecurity team (Ansible, GitLab, Jenkins).
● Developed and maintained backup policies for critical infrastructure, ensuring data integrity and rapid recovery in case of system failures.
● Conducted periodic reviews and audits of firewall policies to minimize attack surfaces, ensuring compliance with both CIS benchmarks and vendor-specific best practices.
● Monitored security logs and system alerts to detect potential intrusions, ensuring rapid response and minimizing downtime through proactive security measures.
● Led the configuration and management of VPN tunnels, ensuring secure remote access and maintaining system performance standards.
● Tuned Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) to meet client-specific security and performance requirements, reducing false positives and enhancing detection accuracy.
● Oversaw the upgrade and patch management process for various security devices, maintaining strong defenses against emerging vulnerabilities.

Senior Advanced Cybersecurity Architect / Engineer

Advanced Cybersecurity Architect / Engineer

ING Romania

I supported risk management initiatives and ensured compliance with internal policies and regulatory standards. I also contributed to strengthening security controls, supporting IT projects, and leading incident investigations to enhance the bank's overall security posture.

My responsibilities included, but were not limited to: 
● Conduct application and infrastructure security and vulnerability assessments; 
● Perform proactive research to identify and understand new threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits; 
● Support IT department and business functions in setting up controls to proactively manage information security-related risks; 
● Support bank projects and changes from the perspective of IT and Information Security; 
● Internal contact for questions related to IT and Information Security; 
● Advice and support regarding Information Security requirements for IT Assets and processes; 
● Participate in the implementation of the security architecture, both in terms of infrastructure and applications; 
● Review and approve the operating security guidelines (OSG) developed for IT Assets; 
● Monitor the scope and effectiveness of security controls in IT processes (e.g. patching, vulnerability management, lifecycle management, external connections management, security event monitoring, technical state compliance monitoring, penetration testing, change management, etc.); 
● Investigate security incidents and define remediation plans accordingly; 
● Redesign the management of Cybersecurity Incidents (People, Policies, Procedures, Tools, etc).

Information Security Officer

I deployed, managed, and secured network infrastructures, ensuring the protection of systems through configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting. My focus was on maintaining the integrity of security devices, optimizing performance, and supporting incident response efforts.

My responsibilities included, but were not limited to:
● Manage the following technologies: Web Application Firewall, IDS/IPS, DDoS tooling, Firewalls, Web Gateway, Mail Gateway, NAC, Endpoint Security Solutions, Load Balancers, and Vulnerability Management;
● Implement, maintain, and troubleshoot a complex security tooling infrastructure;
● Perform daily operating system administration tasks, including hardware and software upgrades, patch management, and maintaining regulatory controls;
● Review the environment and have initiatives to reduce failures, and defects and improve performance;
● Perform daily systems checks and correct any issues;
● Perform performance analysis, proactive troubleshooting, continual improvement, and capacity planning;
● Ensure timely and accurate resolution of the incidents on the administrated systems;
● Investigate the problems in the production environment;
● Document tasks and changes, including deep analysis in order to prevent any downtime;
● Maintain security and data integrity;
● Define and refine IT security runbooks;
● Test the effectiveness of the existing security controls;
● Coordinate IT security actions in case of an incident.

Senior Security Infrastructure Engineer

I was responsible for designing, implementing, and troubleshooting complex network and security solutions across various platforms. My role involved managing security policies, maintaining device configurations, and ensuring the integrity of network infrastructures while supporting clients' evolving security needs.

My responsibilities included, but were not limited to:
● Designing or advising on different technical solutions covering a large area of vendors: Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortinet, McAfee, Check Point, Juniper;  
● Troubleshooting or advising in the troubleshooting process of different types of issues in regard to: Cisco Routers, Cisco Core Switches, Cisco ASA, Checkpoint FW (R77.30, R80), Palo Alto FW, Juniper FW, McAfee NSP;  
● Implementing and troubleshooting security policies on Cisco ASA, Checkpoint FW (R77.30, R80), Palo Alto FW;  
● Configuring and maintaining backup policies;  
● Maintaining the security posture of the managed devices in accordance with CIS and vendor-specific best practice guides;  
● Perform periodic reviews and analysis of firewall policies in order to reduce the attack surface to a minimum accepted one;  
● Monitor logs and output of various software and data collected by monitoring systems to identify abnormal situations, computer attacks, system downtime, and use of access rights;  
● Respond to key system alerts; determine the optimal technical solution for a specific issue.

Network Consultant

Reliance acsn

I led a team responsible for managing and securing client network infrastructures, ensuring high service quality and adherence to security best practices.
● Led a team managing and securing client network infrastructures, ensuring high service quality and adherence to security best practices.
● Oversaw incident response efforts across multiple security platforms, guiding the team in troubleshooting and resolving security incidents efficiently.
● Directed firewall policy configuration and optimization, ensuring robust security while mentoring team members on best practices.
● Conducted security reviews and compliance assessments, leading the team in minimizing attack surfaces and maintaining industry standards.
● Supervised log monitoring and VPN management, ensuring quick response to threats while supporting secure remote client access.

Managed Security Services Team Leader

Oracle

My responsibilities included, but were not limited to, the support of devices from the following list:
•	Firewall - Juniper, Fortigate
•	Load Balancer - F5
•	Proxy Web Gateway – McAfee
•	IPSec VPN - Juniper, Fortigate
•	Array SSL VPN
•	Cisco AAA
•	Cisco ASA Remote Access VPN

Network Security Engineer

Secureworks

My responsibilities included, but were not limited to:
•	Analysis of different attack vectors (malicious e-mails, malicious documents (MsOffice, PDF, etc), malicious scripts, etc);
•	Analysis of InfoSec incidents;
•	Correlating pieces of information gathered from different InfoSec Intell Sources IPVoid, Alien Vault OTX, Sucuri, Schodan, Xnode, URL Void, etc);
•	Raw log output analysis;
•	Event correlation (QRadar, Cylance, SEP, Sourcefire, Cisco ASA, FirePower, Juniper FW, F5 LTM, Windows 7/10, Windows Servers, Linux Servers, Qualys VMS, ProofPoint, Cisco Threat Grid, REMNUX, Websense);
•	Knowledge sharing with other teams from SecureWorks and the customer’s environment;
•	Best practice guidance and knowledge sharing in the fields where I have relevant hands-on experience.

Senior Information Security Analyst

Cegeka Romania

My responsibilities included, but were not limited to:
•	Implementing routing on different types of devices: Cisco Routers, Cisco Core Switches, Cisco ASA, Checkpoint FW, Fortigate FW, Palo Alto FW, Juniper FW, OpenBSD FW, PfSense FW;
•	Securing networking devices - Management, Data & Control Planes;
•	Implementing PBR rules on different devices (as it can be seen above);
•	Setting up and debugging VPN tunnels and also SSL VPNs (F5 APM);
•	Configuring Virtual Servers on the F5 LTM;
•	Configuring and upgrading network devices;
•	Tuning IPS functionality according to the customer's security and performance requirements;
•	Intaking remote sites for one of our customers;
•	Upgrading networking devices (Cisco, Aruba);
•	Managing user access for specific platform;
•	Incident response and management;
•	Troubleshooting networking and security related incidents that affect the environments of the customers, in accordance with their priorities and SLAs.

Network & Security Support Engineer

Romanian Navy Headquarters

My responsibilities included:
• Implementing Information Security Standards and Procedures to guarantee Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability regarding the managed data; 
• Performing specific periodic Information Security inspections; 
• Providing direction to lower-level personnel when necessary;
• Gain senior management and stakeholders' commitment to supporting the implementation of the information security strategy; 
• Define, implement, and monitor information security responsibilities throughout the organization and lines of authority; 
• Conduct audit activities; 
• Contribute to the annual acquisition plan regarding specific technology; 
• Identify internal and external factors that impact the information security strategy; 
• Identify legal and regulatory compliance requirements; 
• Keep senior management and stakeholders up to date with the specific legal and regulatory compliance requirements; 
• Evaluate information security controls against acceptable risk management levels; 
• Maintain the process for information asset identification and classification; 
• Monitor and report information security metrics to senior management and key stakeholders; 
• Monitor and maintain incident response plans, specific business continuity plans, and the disaster recovery plan; 
• Define and implement processes to ensure proper information security incident management; 
• Organize and train incident response teams;  
• Define, maintain, and monitor the information security awareness and training program; 
• Provide analysis and support for continuous improvement initiatives; 
• Provide enterprise-wide retrospective analysis of schedule performance while continuously improving the involved processes; 
• Working closely with field operations managers and enterprise leaders to complete the scheduled assignments. 
• Creating, distributing, and maintaining organizational-wide strategic, operational, and tactical plans regarding military equipment acquisitions;

Cybersecurity Professional | I Help Businesses With Secure Digital Environments For Their Employees And Customers | Writing About Cybersecurity, Personal Development, Success Mindset, Productivity And Career Development

Cybersecurity Architecture and Engineering Consultant | Career Design and Transformation Partner | Founder, Mentor, Certified Career Coach

CISSP · CISM · A-C|CISO · Check Point CCSE · Palo Alto PCNSE · CCNP TSHOOT · CCNA Security · CCNA CyberOps · ZCCA-IA · Comptia Security+ · Software Security Practitioner - Software Architect · Cisco Certified Specialist - Enterprise Advanced Infrastructure Implementation

I'm a dynamic Information Security Professional, a former Navy officer, with over 10 years of hands-on experience in cybersecurity architecture and engineering, security operations, incident response, and network security management, in both Private and Public sectors.

While I avoid overspecializing in a single field, my background, including 12 years in the military, helps me easily adapt to new environments, technologies, and teams.

I value transparency and honesty, and I am a self-learner, committed to self-improvement and personal growth.

Here's how I can help:

Cybersecurity Consulting: Providing strategic guidance and practical solutions to safeguard your digital assets, mitigate risks, and enhance your security posture.

Cybersecurity Technology Deployment, Management, and Optimization: I ensure your systems are fortified against threats while optimizing their performance for maximum efficiency.

Information Security Management Program: Crafting comprehensive programs tailored to your organization's needs.

Information Security Risk Management: Identifying, assessing, mitigating risks, and developing proactive strategies to safeguard your data and maintain business continuity.

Information Security Program Optimization: Fine-tuning existing security programs, aligning them with industry best practices, and driving continuous improvement.

Service Management Consulting - Delivery & Optimization: By streamlining service management processes, I enable your organization to deliver exceptional customer experiences, optimize resources, and drive business growth.

I am also a Certified Career Coach, committed to helping others discover, design, and grow fulfilling careers that align with their values and purpose, pro bono, through mentorship and personalized career guidance.

taplio

The Battle

Liviu Munteanu CISSP, CISM

Catalin Lazar

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