Wellington, NZ
Max Anderson
BE Cybersecurity student at VUW. I run a hardened Linux home lab, write security tooling, and learn by pulling infrastructure apart to see how it works.
Who I am
First-year cybersecurity student at VUW. Most of my technical background comes from running my own infrastructure and self-directed research alongside coursework. Elected class representative across all four first-year papers.
Victoria University of Wellington
1st in CS, top of school (2025)
Available part-time during term
027 210 1490
All 4 first-year papers, VUW 2026
What I work with
Mostly self-taught through running production infrastructure, with formal coursework in networks, systems, and programming.
What I've built
A mix of security research, infrastructure work, and tooling. Most came from running my own systems and finding problems worth solving. Each one has a full write-up.
Enterprise Network VLAN Discovery and Responsible Disclosure
Identified a dual-VLAN architecture on a university enterprise network through DHCP analysis and systematic connectivity testing. Documented differing security policies between network segments, produced a written findings report, and engaged directly with the VUW Network Engineering and Cybersecurity teams.
Outcome: findings formally acknowledged and reviewed by the VUW security team
Read the write-up →Hardened Linux Home Lab Server
Deployed Ubuntu Server 24.04 on repurposed enterprise hardware. Configured static networking, UFW/nftables firewall, and least-privilege sudo via sudoers.d. Disabled 15+ unnecessary system services to reduce attack surface. Containerised five applications with Docker Compose, automated image updates via Watchtower, and set up drive health monitoring with Discord webhook alerting.
Read the write-up →SSH Brute-Force Log Detector
Python script that parses Linux auth.log, aggregates failed SSH login attempts by source IP, and fires a Discord webhook alert when a configurable threshold is exceeded. Structured console output with per-IP breakdowns and attempt counts.
Read the write-up →Home Lab
A repurposed HP EliteDesk 800 G1 running Ubuntu Server 24.04. Hardened, self-managed, and running 24/7 in a VUW common room. Most of the skills listed above came from maintaining this.
Get in touch
Open to cybersecurity internships and part-time tech work in Wellington. I reply the same day.