Security & Intelligence Research

Research

This section collects my security research, dark-web intelligence work, and lab-based technical studies — structured research into how anonymity infrastructure and hidden-service ecosystems behave, and the collection and analysis workflows that make that research reproducible.

Objectives

Research questions

The study is organized around a small set of questions about how the I2P hidden-service ecosystem is structured and how it can be observed responsibly.

  • How can hidden services on the I2P network be discovered and enumerated at scale using only application-layer and network-layer observations?
  • What does connectivity between hidden services and the underlying routing infrastructure look like when the two layers are fused into a single graph?
  • How is the darknet hidden-service ecosystem structured, and how does that structure change over time?
  • What collection-and-analysis workflow makes this kind of darknet measurement reproducible and defensible?

Methodology

Collection & analysis approach

At a high level, the framework fuses two layers of observation — network-layer routing data and application-layer hidden-service ("eepsite") crawls — into a single directed graph for analysis.

Collection

Application-layer crawling of I2P hidden services via the I2P HTTP proxy, with structured storage in MariaDB.

Tooling

Python collection and processing pipelines built for repeatable, scriptable runs.

Analysis

Graph-based relationship analysis to characterize connectivity and infrastructure structure.

Methodology is described at the level appropriate for a public research summary; sensitive operational specifics are intentionally omitted.

Outputs

Research outputs

  • Doctoral dissertation research In Progress
  • Technical research notes — published as the work matures
  • Future conference / journal papers Planned
  • Related lab artifacts — see Security Lab Artifacts below

See the Publications page for the formal record.

Lab

Security lab artifacts

Technical environments and lab build-outs that support hands-on research and skills development.

Security Lab InfrastructureMalware Analysis Lab Environment

Building a Malware Reversing Lab on Proxmox

Security lab infrastructure for static and dynamic malware analysis, built on Proxmox alongside a detection-engineering stack feeding Elastic SIEM. Documented as a malware-analysis lab environment — not a CTI report or investigation.

Activity

Current research activity

  • I2P Hidden Service Ecosystem Analysis In Progress — PhD research focused on hidden-service discovery, application-layer crawling, infrastructure mapping, graph-based relationship analysis, and reproducible collection workflows within the I2P anonymity network.
  • KC7 Cyber Investigation Portfolio In Progress — Building a public portfolio of scenario-based cyber threat investigations using KC7 Cyber materials, with emphasis on evidence analysis, KQL queries, IOC pivoting, ATT&CK mapping, and structured reporting.
  • Practical Detection Engineering In Progress — Studying detection engineering concepts and workflows. This capability is actively developing and will only be published as rules, detections, or validation reports once the work is completed and defensible.
  • Cyber Threat Intelligence Research & Writing In Progress — Developing public-facing investigation reports, research notes, and technical articles that document analytical reasoning, evidence collection, and security research.
  • Cyber Threat Intelligence Lab In Progress — Rebuilding the website as a long-term CTI Lab that connects investigations, research, publications, lab artifacts, and future detection engineering work into a single evidence-based professional identity.

Direction

Future research directions

Where the lab is headed as the work matures.

Dark-web infrastructure analysis

Extending ecosystem mapping to characterize darknet infrastructure at scale.

Threat-informed detection engineering

Translating observed tradecraft into detections — once the detection-engineering capability is established.

AI-enabled threat analysis

Applying machine learning to security measurement and triage.

Intelligence collection methodology

Reproducible, defensible collection workflows for hard-to-observe networks.

Security measurement research

Empirical measurement of security-relevant network ecosystems.