Jonathan Aponte

Cybersecurity professional and independent security researcher with 5+ years across cyber investigation, threat intelligence, and offensive security. Hands-on vulnerability research and responsible-disclosure experience (HackerOne, Intigriti) brings a practitioner's eye for assessing the real-world harm potential of technical content—distinguishing genuine offensive capability from legitimate, educational security research. Skilled at investigating suspicious activity through forensic log analysis, OSINT, and adversary TTP mapping to MITRE ATT&CK, then documenting and communicating findings to stakeholders.

U.S.

Marine

Corps veteran comfortable in high-tempo, ambiguous environments with on-call escalations and insider-threat-sensitive work. B.S. in Cybersecurity & Information Assurance; CompTIA Security+ and PenTest+ certified.

Senior Threat Analyst at Quadrant Information Security (2022-04 – 2026-02)

Led threat intelligence and incident investigation across client environments, analyzing adversary activity and assessing the impact of malicious code and attacker tooling.

• Investigated and triaged security incidents end-to-end—from identification through containment, eradication, and recovery—correlating insider events and external threat feeds to reduce mean time to respond (MTTR).
• Conducted deep-dive adversary TTP analysis using MITRE ATT&CK, mapping behaviors to systemic weaknesses and assessing real-world impact to drive remediation.
• Performed threat hunting across endpoint and network telemetry, proactively identifying indicators of compromise (IOCs), C2 activity, and attack-path vulnerabilities before escalation.
• Developed and tuned SIEM correlation rules and alerting logic to surface high-fidelity detections of malicious activity while minimizing false positives.
• Authored detailed investigative and post-incident documentation, sharing findings with internal and customer stakeholders to support continuous improvement and audit readiness.

IT Security Analyst at Mainz Brady Group (2021-06 – 2022-04)

Deployed and operated IDS/IPS and EDR tooling to protect network infrastructure, performing continuous monitoring and investigation across enterprise endpoints.

• Led continuous monitoring and rapid response, identifying and containing threats to endpoints and network assets with minimal disruption.
• Tuned IDS/IPS detection rules to reduce alert fatigue and improve signal quality, enabling proactive identification of malicious activity.
• Analyzed logs, network traffic, and forensic data to support investigations, documenting findings for compliance and reporting.
• Designed and implemented Active Directory account templates, reducing new-hire setup time and strengthening access governance.

Sr. Identity & Access Management Analyst at PSCU (2020-10 – 2021-06)

Administered identity management and user provisioning across a financial-services environment with strict regulatory compliance requirements.

• Served as SME for IAM functions, orchestrating endpoint and user audits to enforce least-privilege access and minimize attack surface.
• Authored and refined procedural documentation supporting audit trails and access-control compliance.
• Drove IAM process improvements, optimizing workflows to reduce provisioning errors and access risk.

Service Desk Analyst at Flight Centre Travel Group (2018-12 – 2020-05)

• Performed daily Windows endpoint administration and systems operations; redesigned field service processes to reduce average resolution time.
• Implemented Active Directory workflows for user management and conducted annual user-account audits.

Freelance Security Researcher at HackerOne / Intigriti Bug Bounty Programs (2020-08 – Present)

• Performed vulnerability research and responsible disclosure on live production systems through structured bug bounty programs, assessing exploitability and real-world impact to separate genuine risk from low-severity or benign findings.
• Deployed a VPS-based honeypot to capture malicious activity and report IOCs to threat intelligence feeds via API integrations, generating actionable intelligence.
• Built Suricata-based correlation feeds and reporting pipelines to detect Command & Control (C2) activity from raw log data—analogous to detection tuning in an enterprise SOC.

Corporal – E4 at United States Marine Corps (2011-01 – 2015-01)

• Developed discipline, sound judgment, and a mission-focused work ethic suited to high-pressure, ambiguous, and rapidly shifting operational environments, including 24/7 on-call duty.

B.S. in Cybersecurity & Information Assurance – Western Governors University (2020-01 – 2025-01)

Cybersecurity Analytics Bootcamp – Flatiron School (2020-05 – 2020-09)

Computer Support & Network Technician – Lincoln Technical Institute (2017-03 – 2017-12)