Austin has more than a decade of experience in cybersecurity and business IT, working across finance, manufacturing, and enterprise environments in roles ranging from system administrator to security architect, penetration tester, red team operator, and detection engineer.
He currently works as a Threat Detection Engineer. Additional information is available upon request.
Origins
Austin's interest in cybersecurity started in 2003 with a Dell Alienware Area-51 desktop. By high school he was writing policy papers on nation-state cyber operations and guest-lecturing on why cyber deserved its own branch of the U.S. military — years before Cyber Command was elevated to a unified combatant command.
By 2013 he was working inside IT departments and running a server hosting business across the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
Experience
Austin builds detection programs, threat intelligence integrations, and automated response systems. He is focused on AI-driven agentic security operations — combining deterministic and non-deterministic approaches to move faster than manual workflows allow.
He started on the offensive side as a consultant — penetration testing, red team engagements, and vulnerability research. That background is the reason organizations bring him in to build fortresses, not fences.
Community
Austin is a co-founder of Burning River CyberCon, a Cleveland-based conference built around real-world, practitioner-focused content. He writes and speaks on security topics regularly. His blog is at blog.defcesco.io and his published work and conference appearances are on the publications page.