Hello I'm
Alex Coulon
Cloud & Cyber Security Student
- alex@skwaleks.be
- +32 478 03 02 16
- De Lunden 30, 2170 Merksem (Antwerpen)
Hello, I’m Alex Coulon, or better known as Skwaleks on the internet, a Cybersecurity student from Belgium. Really interested in everything Cybersecurity related. In my free time I'm active into youth movement, volunteer works, inline skating & everything tech related. Looking forward to a career in cybersecurity/pentesting.
For my graduation internship, I decided to go on Erasmus. Between February 28 and May 28 the Cybersecurity department of the UTB in Zlin (Czech Republic) gave me and 2 classmates an opportunity to research and work on honeypot solutions for the University. The UTB is the biggest university in the Zlinsky region, with 6 faculties. Our office was located at U5-FAI (Faculty of Applied Informatics).
Because of the ongoing situation in Europe the amount of cyberattacks has risen world-wide, the UTB which is located close to the Ukraine border sees a massive influx of attacks to their systems. This is why we are asked to research all possible solutions for honeypots and implement the best ones with best production-wise practices for Linux, Windows & macOS.
My share in this project is the Linux-side. I'm responsible for the Linux research & setup of honeypots. I created a network of multiple honeypots which are imitating a real part of the UTB network. The data gathered from these honeypots are analyzed and checked with lists of known attackers/attacks and visualized on an ELK stack with Kibana through a secure data-stream connection. Making sure our solutions are secure was a big part of this task, we performed pen tests (both manually and automatically) on all of our solutions.
Cybersecurity is my passion, experienced on Linux, Windows, Datacenter technology & Security. Currently working on defensive & offensive (pentesting) security.
Experienced in networks, cloud platforms, data management & basic development (python, java, c# & web development).
Experienced in planning & executing Digital marketing & Social media campaigns.
For the school subject System Engineering & Analysis, I developed "CyberBass6000" with a fellow Student. This device is tailored to the needs of Cybersecurity teachers & the cyber classroom. This device provides the brightening of the cyber lab using music, news, radio & more.
The project has seriously sharpened my Internet of Things skills.
In my free time, I participated in the Smart Policing hackathon. Togheter with some other students
we formed a team "Criminal Records". During this hackathon we invented the app "Okay" which will
make the first contact with police easier. Our app is mainly focused on teenagers who are being
bullied, sexually assaulted and so on. It's really hard to go to a police station and talk about
being sexually abused, our app "Okay" will make the landing easier.
Our team was selected for the finals & won the finals in the smart policing challenge!
Remember: It's okay not to be okay.
During the whole academic year some ITfactory teachers & students are participating at the Sandbox 2030 hackathon from Thomas More.
"Op 4/1 startten meer dan 80 collega's en studenten de 'Sandbox 2030 online bootcamp' om in team hun idee verder uit te werken. Op 4/2 pitchten ze die 16 ideeën voor de jury, die bestond uit Stijn Coenen, Johan De Keyzer, Ludo Lauwers, Eric Clinck, Joan De Boeck, en Wendy Agyin. Jouw stem heeft de jury geïnformeerd en geadviseerd over welke ideeën jij en alle collega's en studenten van Thomas More echt de moeite waard vinden."
Click HERE for our pitchdeck with more information.
I've achieved the LPI Linux Essentials exam certification on 30/01/2020.
Certification validation can be found here.
I've received certification of student level credential course completion on CCNA Routing & Switching: Routing and Switching Essentials.
I've received certification of student level credential course completion on CCNA ENSA: Enterprise Network Security & Automation
I've received certification of student level credential course completion on Cisco Devnet Associate.
I've received certification of student level credential course completion on Cisco CyberOps Associate.
For my graduation internship, I went on Erasmus to the University of Zlin. Here I worked in a team on honeypot solutions. More info about this internship can be found on the top of this portfolio.
For my final school project I worked in a student-team with students from APP, AI/BI, CCS & IOT on a project for a real client Van Roey. The results are complying with the wishes from our Client. The demo video can be found here. I was responsible for the hosting, security & monitoring side. Besides that I was the team lead and agile responsible, this includes talks with clients, keeping internal works on a specified level & following up work from team members. Because of the load of IOT work, I regularly helped out our IOT department.
I participated twice with the Cybersecurity Challenge Belgium:
2020 - 2021 | Team DieVan2CCS | 102/225
2021 - 2022 | Team Zlint | 76/253 (3 person team instead of 4)
I'm a volunteer member of the team behind student union HABES. We are a student club for all students around Merksem and provide them with everything a student can use: sport events, parties, place to study, cultural activities & much more.
2020 - 2023 | Praesidium Media | In charge of designing banners, posters and so on for all type of events. Responsible for light, sound & electricity at all events. Actively participating in general efforts at events (working shifts at the bar, income, ...). Besides that everything else that touches media/IT somehow, i'll take responsibility for it.
I've been into scouting since I was a small child, I'm a leader for the past 3 years with a lot of other Responsibilities.
2019-2020:
- Leader Welpen (8-11 year)
- Responsible Website
- Responsible webshop
- Responsible for the yearly weekend with all groups
- Responsible for ehbo & insurance interventions
2020-2021:
- Leader JongGivers (11-4 year)
- End responsible for the JongGivers leaders
- Responsible Website
- Responsible webshop
- Responsible for the yearly weekend with all groups
- Responsible for the workout & fysical setup of our yearly adventure height-parcour
2021-2022:
- Responsible for the Media, IT & maintenance team
- Responsible Website
- Responsible webshop
- Backup leader & cooking assistant
- Responsible for the workout & fysical setup of our yearly adventure height-parcour
I'm a volunteer member of the Student Information Network (SIN). This is a student union providing affordable web hosting to all IT students to ensure all students can complete their education in IT. We are 14 students working day in and day out on maintaining our servers, first line support, innovating & administration.
2020 - 2021 | Semester 1 | Junior System engineer | 6 months of thorough training and projects guided by mediors and seniors in the team. Getting acquainted with the systems running.
2020 - 2021 | Semester 2 | Staff System engineer | 6 months of building projects, maintaining and patching all of our systems.
2021 - 2022 | Semester 1 & 2 | President | I'm the president and responsible person for SIN. Responsible for all HR related items, setup internal trainings, create events & team buildings, work on PR and expanding SIN, setup of a 8 year roadmap plan, following up our project leads, make sure SIN is a well running and nice work environment for all of our volunteers & all other tasks a president should be executing.
During the pandemic, the Belgian government was really hesitated on sharing the vaccination numbers and deliveries. That's why Joris Vaesen decided to build the Covid Vaccination Belgium dashboard. I was so happy with seeing this evolution of the project, I decided to apply to help with the Project. I was 'hired' as a volunteer to set up and maintain the social media. Furthermore, I was responsible for sharing daily updates about the vaccination campaign progress on our Facebook and reply to our social media messages as a first line support. Besides that, I was brainstorming on new useful information to implement in the dashboard & social media.
I finished the Google course 'Fundamentals of Digital Marketing' and passed the final exam, which provided me with this lifetime certification.
I'm a very active member on the platform 'Discord', I'm volunteer & paid enrolled in multiple projects around & inside the platform.
Previous projects: Translating English --> Dutch | Managing incoming feedback | Bug hunter.
Current projects: Member of the Event team (work at conventions) | Member of the Discord Moderator Discord | Certified Moderator | Certified Developer | Writer of 2 Academy articles | Working for Valorant & Valorant LFG server | Working for NASCAR server & much more.
During the pandemic the whole world had a hard time switching to online, families couldn't see each other anymore, grandparents not knowing how to skype. That's why BEEGO launched a call for volunteers for remote IT support. I hopped in the volunteer team and helped 40+ people with their IT problems remotely (mostly helping people change to the online world and guiding them through all the possibilities and helping them with all their issues). After this, I was hired as a full student job IT consultant.
