×
Michael Starks

Michael Starks

Detection & Response • Architecture & Engineering • Compliance
Grapevine, Texas, 76051
resume@michaelstarks.com

Background

Work Experience

Work Experience

  • Logging Engineer & Manager, Costco

    Mar, 2022 - Present

    At Costco I wear many hats, both officially and unofficially: Engineer, Manager, Project Manager, and Product Owner. I built a team of incredibly talented individuals to lead us from an underperforming SIEM to one with measurably better outcomes in overall value, data quality, and performance. DeTT&CT and MITRE ATT&CK provide the foundational frameworks from which we assess and measure quality.

    • Nominated for the Splunkie Change Agent Award due to the implementation of a comprehensive log management strategy using Splunk

    • Built and led a team of 7 to successfully migrate all log sources from Google Chronicle to Splunk on-time and under budget

    • Achieved $2.7M+ in cost savings by optimizing Azure Monitor cloud expenditures.

  • Senior Security Engineer, SIEM, Walmart

    Nov, 2019 - Mar, 20222 years 3 months

    In this role, I engineered processes to reduce unnecessary work, ensure consistent and repeatable outcomes, and conform with security standards. Through this risk-based triage process, engineers determined which logs sources were most likely to result in useful detections. This reduced cost, complexity and false-positives. Additionally, I was part of a team migrating a legacy SIEM solution to a new, cloud-based architecture.

    • Received the Making a Difference Award for significantly improving processes relating to data onboarding

    • Designed redundant DNS and L4-based load balancing solution

  • Principal Software Engineer, Cybersecurity, Walmart

    Jan, 2019 - Nov, 201910 months

    As the most experienced security professional on the team, my job was to look at the big picture. What do the vulnerabilities actually mean? What is the real risk? How can we translate audit findings into actionable solutions?

    • Designed process for integrating bug bounty program into tooling

    • Designed virtual infrastructure to replace ageing physical servers

  • Security Architect, Exeter Finance

    Feb, 2016 - Dec, 20182 years 10 months

    While leading a wonderful team of Security Engineers, I created and executed the technical implementation of a quantitative risk program.

    • Reduction of overlapping and expensive security tools based on quantitative FAIR data

    • Designed, built and operated Splunk infrastructure, increasing visibiliy into asset managementand security threats

Skills

Skills

  • Leadership

    Team building

    Vendor management

    Project management

    Roadmap development

    Budgeting and forecasting

    Professional associations

  • Detection and Response

    SIEM

    SOAR

    Splunk

    Syslog-ng

    OSSEC

  • Audit and Compliance

    PCI

    HIPAA

    SoX

  • Security Engineering

    CIS hardening

    MITRE ATT&CK

    DeTT&CT

  • Enterprise GNU/Linux

    Ubuntu

    RHEL

  • Risk Assessment and Frameworks

    FAIR

    NIST Cybersecurity Framework

Certificates

Certificates

Awards

Awards

  • Making a Difference Award , Walmart

    Awarded on: Mar 31, 2021

    Granted to associates whose contributions significantly change ways of working for the better.

  • ISSA Fellow , ISSA

    Awarded on: Jan 31, 2014

    Designated as an ISSA Fellow, a prestigious recognition given to the top 2% of ISSA members for outstanding contributions to the field of information security.

  • CIO Award , Southside Bank

    Awarded on: Jul 31, 2012

    Granted to the employee who demonstrates performance beyond expectations.

Volunteer Work

Volunteer Work

  • Professional Ethics Committee, Information Systems Security Association (ISSA)

    Apr, 2009 - Dec, 2021

    Service to the international ISSA Professional Ethics Committee.

    • Provided over ten years of continuous service, contributing to key initiatives surrounding ethical conduct of ISSA members

    • Authored and published several articles on ethical practices and cybersecurity in the ISSA Journal, enhancing the committee’s reputation

  • President, ISSA, Fort Worth Chapter

    Dec, 2016 - Dec, 2018

    Fort Worth Chapter President.

    • Completely rebranded and relaunched the chapter

    • Reversed declining membership into double-digit growth

    • Partnered with groups such as Women in Security, Tarleton College, and Dallas Hackers Association

  • Secretary, ISSA, Fort Worth Chapter

    Jan, 2015 - Dec, 2016

    Chapter Secretary.

  • Core Team Member, OSSEC Foundation

    Jan, 2010 - Jan, 2014

    Main developer of Windows rules, contributor of several other application decoders and rules, and community support

Publications

Publications

  • The Fundamental Right to Encrypt II, ISSA Journal

    Published on: Feb 01, 2015

    In a continuation of my previous article on the use of encryption to guarantee privacy, this article explores the legal framework surrounding the use of biometrics to secure encrypted data. While the right to remain silent may work for passwords, biometrically encrypted data may not have the same protections.

  • The Fundamental Right to Encrypt, ISSA Journal

    Published on: Dec 01, 2014

    Privacy is recognized as a fundamental human right by Article 12 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this article, I argue that every right must have a guarantor, and the guarantor of privacy in the modern age is encryption.

  • The Economics of Outrage and the NSA, ISSA journal

    Published on: May 01, 2014

    We need not be morally outraged in order to defend ourselves against ubiquitous government surveillance; we need only recognize the changing economics of security and adjust accordingly.

  • When Ethics Collide, ISSA Journal

    Published on: Dec 31, 2013

    What do you do when ethical principles seem to be at odds with one another? We have options. In this article, I explore some of the potential solutions to this dilemma.

  • Waging War in the Digital Age, ISSA Journal

    Published on: Mar 01, 2012

    What are the ethical ramifications of waging war via computer? Does war even have to be declared? Where are the boundaries in the virtual world? What happens when machines begin to think for themselves? These are the questions I explore in this article.

  • When Disclosure Can Kill, ISSA Journal

    Published on: Nov 01, 2011

    This article explores the ethical considerations of full disclosure when viewed in the context of potentially life-threatening consequences.

  • INSERT Ethics INTO Public Web App Testing, ISSA Journal

    Published on: Oct 01, 2009

    In this article, I explore the ethical ramifications of testing public web applications.