Writing archive
Stories, lessons, and playbooks
Years of notes from michaelbanks.org and blog.michaelbanks.org—now living together. Explore field-tested strategies, leadership lessons, and future-facing experiments.
What I Built From a LinkedIn Data Archive and One Focused AI Session
A practical walkthrough of turning a LinkedIn export into polished narrative assets, with screenshots, privacy boundaries, and a downloadable SKILL.md.
Website and Blog Redesign
Today I’m launching a redesigned, integrated michaelbanks.org experience that brings my website and blog together into one platform.
AI Is Reshaping Security: Insights from InnoSec 2025
During the Amazon Security & SANS Institute InnoSec 2025 event I joined a panel on AI in digital forensics and incident response, discussing how AI is transforming security and why human–AI collaboration matters.
Bridging Technical Excellence with Strategic Leadership at SANSFIRE 2025
I recently completed SANS LDR514 at SANSFIRE 2025 in Washington, DC, where I learned how strategic planning and leadership elevate cybersecurity programs and even won top honors in the labs.
A Fulfilling Q2: From Soldiering to Soldering
Reflecting on a whirlwind Q2, I closed out my command season in the Army Reserve, expanded our SOC teams at AWS and mentored future leaders—proving that leadership spans both military and tech arenas.
Relaunching michaelbanks.org
Design goals, architecture decisions, and how I'm preparing the site for AI-assisted publishing.
Actua CyberSmart Spotlight: The Importance of Representation in Cybersecurity
I was featured in Actua’s CyberSmart Career Spotlight where I shared my journey into cybersecurity and stressed why representation matters in STEM.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Tech Leaders at Amazon Career Quest
At Amazon Career Quest Externship I shared my passion for cybersecurity with rising 10th graders, encouraging them to explore computer science, STEM and design thinking.
Building Mission Control Playbooks
How automation, AI copilots, and clear decision loops shorten the distance between detection and response.
Zero Trust Accelerator
A practical framework to help leadership teams plan, pilot, and scale secure access initiatives.
Returning to Empower Chokor, Ghana through AI, ML and Cloud
Returning to Chokor, Accra with AWS and BASICS International, I taught local youth about AI, machine learning and cloud computing, reinforcing the power of education and technology.
Inspiring Young Minds at Flash Tech Summit
At the Flash Tech Summit I introduced kids to the world of IT and inspired them to explore technology with curiosity and confidence.
Representing AWS Security at VMI 2022 CyberFusion Conference
I had the distinct pleasure of representing AWS Security at the Virginia Military Institute’s 2022 CyberFusion Conference, where I spoke on workforce development and met future cybersecurity leaders.
Teaching AI/ML in Chokor, Accra, Ghana
Through a partnership between AWS and B.A.S.I.C.S International, I spent time in Chokor teaching children about artificial intelligence and machine learning using AWS DeepRacer; the experience was both humbling and inspiring.
How I got started and my journey in Cybersecurity
Recently I was extended an opportunity to speak at an undergraduate class of computer science. The topic I was to speak on was how I got into cybersecurity and my experience of different roles within the public and private sector of cybersecurity. I thought I'd share my story...
The 5 Books Every Cybersecurity Professional Should Read
A group of industry professionals that I know started to talk about interesting books they've read and thus own our very own cyber book club began. Now I keep track of a running and ever-evolving list of books that I genuinely believe EVERYONE in the field and industry should...
How I manage a Serverless Blog for a little over $1 a month
I switched to a "serverless" architecture that costs me pennies to operate monthly. Managing the site with pure HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Implementing a blog would require code changes and pushing objects to S3.
Here's one way I check for malicious IPs
AbuseIPDB is a project dedicated to helping combat the spread of hackers, spammers, and abusive activity on the internet. Here's a tool I wrote to query their API and data base of malicious IPs.
This is My Architecture
Like all things in our industry, things change and evolve. Years ago, I started a personal website. I believe everyone should have a presence somewhere that explains who you are and what you do.
Please Don't Be Like These Guys
With the inevitable breaches that hit the news regularly, I often find myself asking: "What exactly are companies doing to protect our data?"
A Year In The Life
This has been just an amazing year. I have flown about 50,000 miles (47,820) in the sky on an airplane and got to see so much of the US in a short amount of time. I have spent 101 days on the road and have stayed in many Marriotts and Hiltons.
What's In Your Lab?
There come times when an Information Security Consultant may have to deal with a program, vulnerability, or even an operating system you haven't touched before. For moments like that, an essential item in a consultant's toolbox needs to be utilized: a lab.
Embracing DFIR W/ SANS FOR408
FOR408: WINDOWS FORENSIC ANALYSIS. Continuing education and furthering one's toolset in their profession is a critical part of anyone's life. An infosec consultant often has to flex across multiple verticals, which is why I'm embracing Digital Forensics and sharing my experience with the SANS FOR408 course.
Project Slam
Project Slam is an initiative to utilize tools to aid in defending against nefarious adversaries. The overall focus is to research adversary’s behavior and utilize the data to generate wordlists and expose methodologies of various threat actors that can be provided back to the...
5 Tips Airports Should Probably Pay Attention To
While being at the airport a lot, you tend to end up noticing some not so flattering things. In general, it's been my experience that all airports have issues.
TakeDownCon 2016 (Rocket City)
Conferences (Cons) and training events where people from the same industry have become a great resource for people in the industry to networks, share research and give back. I submitted my call for papers and got picked up to participate in TakeDownCON by the EC Council founda...