Cyber Security Student Work/Study — University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Student work/study with campus cyber security at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—automating network defense with ExaBGP and prototyping Google Rapid Response (GRR) integration for incident response workflows.
Key Achievements
- Configured ExaBGP for automated malicious-traffic blocking.
- Prototyped Google Rapid Response integration for university incident response workflows.
- Worked with campus security and infrastructure teams on network-defense automation.
Context
University networks see a constant stream of malicious traffic. Manual blocklists do not scale: responders need automated containment that still fits campus change-control and incident process. The work mixed networking (BGP-level controls) with security operations tooling.
What I Built
Configured ExaBGP for automated malicious-traffic blocking and prototyped Google Rapid Response integration so incident handlers had a clearer path from detection to host-level investigation. Day to day that meant collaborating with campus security and infrastructure teams on network-defense automation.
Why It Mattered
Security automation is reliability under adversarial load. Learning to wire detection → containment → investigation on a real campus network was foundational for later work on production systems where observability, auth boundaries, and failure modes are first-class concerns—not afterthoughts.