Major Hayden

Linux Engineer & Security Architect

Summary

Linux Engineer and Principal Software Engineer with 20+ years of experience in system administration, application development, DevOps, and cybersecurity.

Experience

01/2006 - 12/2018

Chief Security Architect

Led a team of senior Windows, Linux and networking engineers dedicated to increasing security within Rackspace and for customers.

  • Provided critical security advisement to the business as a whole
  • Fueled technical security projects that reduced risk, reduced product development cycle time, and increased customer confidence
  • Worked on the OpenStack project and its integration with Citrix Xenserver and Nicira's networking stack
  • Maintained high-availability clusters, Debian packaging and various system tools and scripts
  • Created a highly automated continuous integration system with Jenkins for rapid testing and deployment
01/2004 - 01/2006

Systems Administrator

Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trustwave Holdings, Inc.

01/2002 - 01/2004

Emergency Medical Technician

Provided critical pre-hospital care as an EMT.

  • Formerly certified as an Emergency Medical Technician in Texas

Open Source Projects

icanhazip.com ∙ https://icanhazip.com

01/2009 - 06/2021

Created icanhazip.com in 2009 and transferred ownership of the site to Cloudflare in 2021

Created icanhazip.com in 2009 and transferred ownership of the site to Cloudflare in 2021

  • Popular IP address lookup service used by thousands daily
  • Transferred to Cloudflare for broader community benefit and sustainability

OpenStack Ansible Hardening Role ∙ https://github.com/openstack/ansible-hardening

01/2015 - 12/2018

Created and maintained the official OpenStack-Ansible security hardening role that applies 200+ automated security configurations based on STIG requirements

Created and maintained the official OpenStack-Ansible security hardening role that applies 200+ automated security configurations based on STIG requirements

  • Applies over 200 host security hardening configurations in under 2 minutes
  • Based on Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) from US federal government
  • Heavily customized to work with OpenStack environments without disruption
  • Supports Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL, and Debian distributions
  • Includes built-in auditing mode for compliance testing
  • Presented at multiple OpenStack Summits and conferences

major.io Blog ∙ https://major.io

01/2006 - Present

Technical blog covering Linux system administration, security, OpenStack, and career development with hundreds of articles

Technical blog covering Linux system administration, security, OpenStack, and career development with hundreds of articles

  • Regular technical content on systems administration and security topics
  • Coverage of OpenStack, Ansible, and infrastructure automation
  • Career development and personal growth content
  • Investing and personal finance topics

stopdisablingselinux.com ∙ https://stopdisablingselinux.com

01/2016 - Present

Educational website promoting proper SELinux usage instead of disabling it for security

Educational website promoting proper SELinux usage instead of disabling it for security

  • Advocacy for proper Linux security practices
  • Educational resources on SELinux configuration
  • Community resource for system administrators

OpenStack-Ansible Deployment Tools ∙ https://github.com/major

01/2014 - 12/2018

Various automation tools and playbooks for OpenStack deployment and management

Various automation tools and playbooks for OpenStack deployment and management

  • Ansible playbooks for OpenStack deployment automation
  • Integration with Citrix XenServer and Nicira networking
  • High-availability cluster management tools
  • Continuous integration system with Jenkins

Education

University of Texas at San Antonio

01/2000 - 12/2004

Bachelor of Science Biology

Volunteer

Fedora Project

01/2012 - 12/2014
Board Member

Served on the Fedora Project Board

  • Maintains several Fedora Linux packages

Publications

Technical Blog

01/2006
major.io

Maintains a blog that includes technical, career growth, personal development, and investing topics

Various Articles and Presentations

01/2015
Multiple venues

Published several articles and presentations on systems administration and security topics