A hands-on AI automation project from concept to working prototype Project type: AI Automation / IT Project Technologies: Wix, Botpress, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Excel Business: Viseu Rapid Plumbing — fictional demonstration business Project duration: A few hours Status: Working prototype Introduction AI is increasingly becoming part of everyday business operations, but I wanted to move beyond simply experimenting with ChatGPT or asking an AI tool to generate content. I wan

Introduction Opening a website normally feels like one simple action. I type a URL into my browser, press Enter, and a few seconds later the page appears. But underneath that simple action, the computer can generate hundreds or thousands of packets involving DNS servers, remote web servers, encryption protocols, background applications and network services. For this project, I wanted to see exactly what was happening on my own Windows laptop. Rather than using a traditional h

For this lab, I wanted to investigate a simple but interesting cybersecurity concept: how data can be hidden inside a file that appears completely harmless. When we see a file called holiday.jpg, we naturally assume it's an image but in cybersecurity, we can't always rely on what a file appears to be. Attackers can use techniques such as steganography to conceal information inside other files. The technique itself isn't inherently malicious, but it can be abused to make suspi

Introduction Virtualisation is a fundamental technology in modern IT infrastructure. Platforms such as Proxmox VE allow organisations to run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server while providing centralised management of compute, storage and networking resources. In this lab, I deployed Proxmox VE inside Oracle VirtualBox to create a nested virtualisation environment. I then configured Proxmox, applied system updates, created a dedicated user, uploaded an Ubun

Introduction As part of building my Windows 11 home lab, I wanted to explore how Chocolatey could be used to manage third-party software updates. While Windows Update keeps the operating system current, many commonly used applications have their own update cycle. Keeping these applications up to date is an important part of maintaining a secure and compliant endpoint. For this lab, I simulated a routine software audit by creating a Windows 11 machine with outdated application

If you're studying for Microsoft certifications, looking to move into systems administration, or simply want hands-on experience with enterprise infrastructure, there's no substitute for building your own Active Directory lab. In this project, I built a small Windows domain from scratch using Oracle VirtualBox, consisting of a Windows Server 2025 Domain Controller and a Windows 11 client. Along the way, I configured Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and joined the client to the dom

One of the more unusual issues I've recently encountered involved Microsoft Surface Pro devices where the built-in microphone suddenly stopped working. At first glance, it appeared to be a Microsoft Teams problem. However, after further investigation, it became clear that the microphone wasn't being detected by any application not Teams, Voice Recorder, Zoom, or even Windows Sound settings. This indicated the problem was occurring at the Windows audio driver level rather than

As businesses scale, managing unorganized data, loose file shares, and inadequate backup strategies becomes a recipe for disaster. Recently, I took on a project to design and build a realistic, enterprise-grade Network Attached Storage (NAS) sandbox from scratch for a fictional company. The goal? Create a highly secure, resilient, multi-department file server environment using Oracle VirtualBox and TrueNAS SCALE. Here is a look inside the architecture, implementation, and co

Introduction Static malware analysis is one of the first techniques used by security analysts when investigating a suspicious executable. Before a file is ever executed in a sandbox or virtual machine, analysts often inspect it to identify indicators that may suggest malicious behaviour. In this project, I built a small malware simulation lab to practise static malware analysis using PEStudio. Rather than downloading or executing real malware, I created several harmless C++ a

Introduction Understanding how systems behave under increased network activity is an important skill for IT professionals and cybersecurity analysts. While large-scale Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks require significant resources and infrastructure, even small-scale network stress can provide valuable insights into how operating systems process traffic and how analysts investigate unusual behaviour. In this lab, I built a controlled Windows-based virtual environment using Vir

Introduction As part of my ongoing home lab activities, I recently simulated a Windows 11 storage incident to practice desktop support troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and preventative maintenance. The objective was to investigate a workstation experiencing severe performance degradation due to low disk space, identify the root cause using TreeSize Free, remediate the issue, and implement a long-term solution to prevent the problem from reoccurring. Incident Overview A u

Welcome to my latest home lab project! In this post, I will take you through the complete deployment, configuration, security hardening, and evaluation of an elementary OS workstation. While my initial plan suggested using Hyper-V, I chose Oracle VirtualBox. As it provides seamless bridged networking and straightforward hardware provisioning, making it ideal for testing a consumer-focused Linux distribution while keeping things highly visible on a local network. Here is the c

Project Overview & Objectives In modern cybersecurity, relying solely on third-party security suites or automated vulnerability scanners can leave blind spots. Understanding how to audit a system using its own architecture is a fundamental skill for both penetration testers (living-off-the-land techniques) and blue team defenders (hardening and forensics). This project demonstrates a thorough local security assessment conducted on a live Windows 11 system using nothing but na

One of the biggest misconceptions about getting started in blue team security is that you need expensive software, enterprise SIEM platforms, or a home lab full of virtual machines. While those tools are certainly useful, the reality is that you can learn many of the core skills used by Security Operations Centre (SOC) analysts using nothing more than a Windows 11 PC. This project was designed to simulate real-world security investigations using only the tools already include

Over a few days, I took on a personal IT engineering project focused on automation, monitoring, and real-time reporting. The goal was simple: build a lightweight System Monitoring Dashboard for my Windows 11 laptop using nothing but PowerShell and built-in Windows functionality — no third-party monitoring tools required. What started as a small scripting exercise quickly evolved into a fully automated monitoring solution capable of collecting live system metrics, logging perf

In a world where everything is connected 24/7, switching off has become surprisingly difficult. Working in IT means spending most of the day surrounded by notifications, emails, dashboards, alerts, tickets, and constant online communication. Even after work ends, the temptation to continue scrolling, checking devices, or “just quickly looking at something” never really disappears. So I decided to solve the problem the only way I know how: With infrastructure. Instead of relyi

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As your organization grows and users come and go, so do their devices. But what happens to all those old laptops, virtual machines, and...

In today’s digital world, receiving suspicious links is all too common. Whether it's via email, SMS, or social media, malicious URLs...