Why I Built This Site (and How It Works)

Jeeksec.io is something I’ve wanted to build for a long time. A few years ago, I bought the domain with the idea of creating a portfolio site that also included a blog. Something I could use to support my resume, but more importantly, a place to keep a history of my work, store knowledge, and reflect as I grow. JeekSec isn’t a brand. It’s a shield for my identity for anyone who happens to stumble across this site.

Now that this place actually exists, how do I intend to use it?

I plan to write Hack The Box write-ups, document personal projects, and keep notes on tools and technologies I’m actively learning. If I attend a conference or event and feel there’s something worth capturing, it may end up here too. The important thing is this:

So how does this site actually work?

There’s a homepage that gives a brief overview of what this site is about, links to the About and Blog sections, a snapshot of what I’m currently focused on, and my latest posts. The About page outlines the kind of professional work I do and my work history. Everything there is intentionally generic. I expect anyone from HR who lands here will understand that it’s genuinely my site. It also includes my education and certifications, past and present.

The Blog section is where individual posts live. Each post is shown as a card with a title, date, estimated read time, description, and tags. Inside each post, there’s a table of contents on the left, and the layout is designed to be readable and responsive. Posts will vary widely in content, and tags will be used to keep things organized. There’s also a built-in search using CTRL+K. And yes, there’s a light mode if you’re into that 😒.

How this site is built and hosted

This site is built using a static site framework called Hugo. I’m still learning it as I write this post, but it does exactly what I need right now. All of the pages and posts are written in Markdown, which keeps things simple and easy to maintain.

I write and edit everything locally using VS Code, then publish the code to a GitHub repository. From there, Cloudflare Pages handles hosting the static site. My workflow is straightforward: I pull from main, create a branch for whatever content I’m working on, write or edit posts, and then merge into the production branch. Once that happens, Cloudflare automatically rebuilds and deploys the updated site.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Dev as You (Dev)
    participant Repo as GitHub Repo
    participant CI as Cloudflare Pages Build
    participant Hugo as Hugo (static build)
    participant CDN as Cloudflare CDN
    participant User as Visitor

    Dev->>Repo: Push branch/main
    Repo-->>CI: Trigger build hook
    CI->>Hugo: Run `hugo` to generate static site
    Hugo-->>CI: Build artifacts (/public)
    CI->>CDN: Deploy static assets
    CDN-->>User: Serve pages/cached assets
    User->>CDN: Requests pages (HTTPS)
  

The setup is intentionally simple. It gives me version control, an easy publishing flow, and room to grow without getting in the way of writing. If my needs change in the future, I can always pivot, but for now this setup does exactly what I need it to do.

As for the content itself, everything here reflects my own thoughts and opinions. You’ll find honest documentation, context around decisions I make, and posts that may be revisited and refined over time. There won’t be clickbait or “Top 10” style content. Full disclosure: I will not upload AI-generated slop here. I do use AI as a tool for formatting, punctuation, and clarity, but the thinking and writing are mine. I’ll only publish things I feel are worth capturing. This site is meant to grow alongside my career, and I hope to revisit older posts in the future to see how my thinking has changed.

This site is mainly for me, and for people like me. Those who are curious about cybersecurity, who enjoy building systems rather than just studying them. I don’t plan on promoting this site heavily. It will mostly be shared during job applications or directly with people if a post relates to a question they have. I’m not very active on social media, and I don’t expect to share it much there.

With all that said, this is the first post of many. I’m excited to continue documenting my journey in this community, one that’s had me captivated since I was a kid, and one I’m proud to be part of.

A treat for you