Katelyn Hindman
Mount Olive,AL
Overview
6
6
years of professional experience
Work History
Threat Research Analyst
Fortra
07.2025 - Current
- Analyze the threat landscape of assigned client portfolios to identify, track, and assess phishing attack activity
- Develop YARA rules to cluster related phishing attacks into distinct threat families, enabling accurate tracking of client-specific attack volume by family
- Produce quarterly threat intelligence reports, compiling and analyzing phishing attack data to identify trends across reporting periods
- Respond to client requests for threat actor investigations, delivering timely analysis to support client security decisions
Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
Rapid7
01.2023 - 01.2025
- Addressed customer inquiries related to Rapid7 Threat Command alerts, provided expert insights, and educated clients about cyber threats, which improved their understanding and preparedness for potential attacks.
- Analyzed and researched persistent threats such as phishing, DDoS, data breaches, and ransomware, evaluated sources, TTPs, IOCs, and intent, and impact, leading to improved threat detection and response strategies for clients.
- Engaged with threat entities across the clear, deep, and dark web, extracted valuable intelligence beyond conventional reach, significantly enhancing the threat intelligence database to better inform critical strategic decisions.
- Conducted dark web interactions with threat actors to purchase compromised credentials and network access, supported investigations, and protected customer assets by preventing unauthorized access.
- Delivered in-depth contextual information on diverse threats and recommended optimal security practices to clients, which improved their security posture and reduced vulnerability to attacks.
- Assisted customers by performing remediation of phishing websites, malicious domains, and compromised social media accounts, ensuring rapid takedown and minimizing threat exposure, which improved customer security posture.
- Conducted investigations and produced detailed research reports on the digital footprint of current executive employees, identifying and mitigating personal cybersecurity risks, which enhanced their personal security.
- Collaborated across multiple internal departments to ensure customer satisfaction and streamline threat response efforts, leading to more efficient threat management.
Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
DarkTower
01.2020 - 01.2023
- Used the OSINT Framework to investigate and hunt cyber threats regarding the client.
- Completed daily task of checking and documenting ransomware families and new ransomware leaks.
- Created and maintained new identities on Dark web marketplaces and social media, supporting undercover operations and intelligence gathering.
- Monitored social media for threat actors, preventing exploitation of client vulnerabilities.
- Looked for instances online of misinformation and disinformation on the client.
- Wrote extensive reports regarding the threats found, or on requests that the client asks the team to investigate and provides feedback to the client on how to mitigate the threats found.
- Managed team by leading internal meetings, while editing and sending off reports.
- Led cybercrime investigations into insider threats, cryptocurrency schemes, and illegal sales, enhancing client security measures and reducing potential risks.
- Authored detailed investigative reports and presented clients with actionable recommendations, improving their threat response strategies.
- Led internal meetings, edited final deliverables, and managed the reporting process.
Internship
Homeland Security Investigations
01.2021 - 01.2022
- Assisted agents in social media investigations using Maltego, contributing to the discovery of critical evidence.
- Participated in executing various types of search warrants, gaining firsthand experience in evidence collection and legal procedures.
- Conducted facial recognition on Spotlight to find matches of missing persons.
- Parsed through phone and computer data to find evidence pertaining to criminal cases.
Internship
Trafficking Hope
01.2021 - 05.2021
- Advocated for survivors of human trafficking by coordinating support services and raising awareness, contributing to their recovery and empowerment.
- Managed Trafficking Hope's social media accounts by creating engaging content and monitoring interactions, enhancing community engagement and awareness.
- Assisted in transporting human trafficking victims to recovery facilities using secure and confidential methods, ensuring their safety and comfort.
- Attended sting operations to work alongside law enforcement in the fight against human trafficking.
Education
Master of Science - Cybersecurity
University of Alabama at Birmingham
01-2023
Bachelor of Science - Information Systems with concentration in Cybersecurity
University of Alabama at Birmingham
01-2021
Skills
- Developing client deliverables
- Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs)
- Dark Web investigations
- OSINT
- HUMINT
- Threat hunting
- Cyber threat intelligence
- Phishing analysis
- Business email compromise (BEC) investigations
- SQL
- Network traffic analysis
- Wireshark
- MITRE ATT&CK framework
- Cyber Kill Chain
- Maltego
- Digital forensics tools
- EnCase
- Cellebrite
- Hard drive data recovery techniques
- Salesforce CRM
- Educating clients on threats
- Mitigation strategies
- Monitoring emerging cyber threats
- Threat Actor and Insider Threat Investigations
- Researching global threat actor activity
- Cryptocurrency-related investigations
- Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)
- Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs)
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs)
- Authoring detailed reports
Timeline
Threat Research Analyst
Fortra
07.2025 - Current
Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
Rapid7
01.2023 - 01.2025
Internship
Homeland Security Investigations
01.2021 - 01.2022
Internship
Trafficking Hope
01.2021 - 05.2021
Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
DarkTower
01.2020 - 01.2023
Bachelor of Science - Information Systems with concentration in Cybersecurity
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Master of Science - Cybersecurity
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Honors Awards Extracurricular
Innovate Birmingham Scholar
Specific Programs Of Mention
Intelligence Operation: Gang Violence (Jan 2022-Jul 2022)
I volunteered my time working as an intelligence analyst for state, local, and federal law enforcement to scope out suspected members of a violent gang. I was given a few names and photos of certain targets of interest, and my duty was to identify other members of that gang, along with locations they frequent. Beginning on social media and singling out each target and identifying any photos or posts they had with firearms or illegal substances. I also identified any illegal means of business from aiding others in creating fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans to selling counterfeit clothing items, firearms/parts, automobiles, and drugs. Additionally, I identified each gang member's associated females, family, and children, along with social media platforms belonging to them. Using web scraping tools, I was able to preserve each gang member's social media accounts, including posts, in the case they deleted it to later be used as evidence. After gathering all the intel needed, I assisted in putting my findings into i2 Analyst Notebook, Excel, and a PowerPoint presentation. I presented these findings in a meeting with an audience that contained District Attorney Investigators, ATF, Secret Service, Alabama Sheriffs, FBI Agents, Birmingham Police, and US Marshals.
Anti-Trafficking Intelligence Initiative: OSINT Research Connecting Onlyfans to Sex Trafficking and Child Sex Abuse (Dec 2021-Jan-2021)
In this project, I was given the task to conduct OSINT using Google Docs to record the number of times a user on Onlyfans mentioned popular escort sites that are known for being associated with human trafficking. Inversely, I applied the same Google Doc methodology for the escort sites given, and Onlyfans- this showed how many Escort ads contained links to an Onlyfans account. Next, I was given key terms that are commonly used in the involvement of child sexual abuse material and used those key terms with my Google Doc methodology that gave me number of results showing every Onlyfans account using the child sex abuse key terms. I then took a sample of individuals that were found on OnlyFans having CSAM related keywords and conducted OSINT on those individuals, linking them back to videos on PornHub, their traffickers, and finding their social media accounts. These findings were then sent by my boss to law enforcement. Overall, this research concluded there is a high
amount of child sexual abuse related content on Onlyfans, as well as a strong link to sex trafficking. Reference: https://followmoneyfightslavery.org/expert-analysis-ofbropen-source-material-relating-tochild-sexual-abuse-material-and-sex-trafficking-occurring-on-onlyfans-com
Federal Grand Larceny Case
For Homeland Security Investigations, I was able to help agents by compiling a list of stolen vehicles and their prices, for those agents to present the evidence in federal court. I was given the data for an individual who made their living off stealing cars and selling them. This data included many police reports, jail phone calls, FLOCK images, and two of the perpetrator’s phone dumps. My job was to sift through this data and figure out all the vehicles in which the perpetrator stole. I tied each car identified back to 18 U.S. Code § 511, 18 U.S. Code § 2312, 18 U.S. Code § 2312, 18 U.S. Code § 2314. I used Cellbrite to go through the perpetrators cell phones, and I was able to connect them to multiple car dealership crime scenes in police reports by discovering his geolocation and timeframe being consistent with police reports. I was also able to identify that the perpetrator had stolen $5,000,000 worth of cars within the past two years. These findings are a large portion of the evidence Homeland Security Special Agents are using in court to prosecute this individual.
Project: Webscraping to Detect Human Trafficking on Escort Sites (Aug 2021-Dec 2021)
This project was created to detect indicators of human trafficking in escort ads by analyzing the circuits of specific escorts. The project was chosen by me in my Computer Forensics course. My group and I collaborated to create a program that would pare down data that was scraped from BackPageGals and KittyAds into a format that could be manipulated to be sorted by phone number, URL, location, and dates of where and when an individual escort was providing services. After analyzing the data, we sifted through the top ads that were posted by one individual with a time and date consistent to proving that individual was a real person, we then pulled out indicators of trafficking within those ads, and then mapped circuits for the individuals that had the most indicators of trafficking. The circuits were created based on their location and time and date, which showed where that escort travels and in what time frames. Traveling in circuits is an indicator of trafficking itself, and we were able to identify 100 real individuals who had indicators of trafficking within their ads were also traveling in circuits along the I-20 corridor.