Mark Jachura — Application Security & Software

Selected work

01 — 03

Application security · Python

SecureScope

Make website security configuration easier to inspect—and act on.

A FOCUSED CONFIGURATION REVIEW

HTTP headersTLSCookiesHTML

Findings with contextEvidence · Suggested actions · HTML / JSON reports

A local Python app that reviews a website’s response and explains configuration findings through a browser interface. Built without third-party packages or a hosted backend.

Design decisions & scope

The scanner, interface, and report exporters are separate. The local interface validates requests, while exported HTML escapes website content and excludes scripts and remote assets.

The tool reports observations with evidence instead of inventing a whole-site security score. It does not crawl, inject payloads, or prove exploitability.

Explore SecureScope

Distributed systems · Team project

Project Diamond

Follow the data. Verify what arrives.

Co-developed a Python workflow for moving, verifying, and processing JSON across services, with an API for recording what happened along the way.

My contribution & engineering choices

Built services for SFTP payload retrieval, HMAC-SHA256 verification, and Pyro4 remote calls, plus an Eve REST API backed by MongoDB.

The project explores where trust crosses service boundaries. It remains a distributed-systems prototype that requires its supporting services; it is not a production deployment.

Explore Project Diamond

Machine learning · Security education

Teaching phishing detection

Turn a security concept into something students can build.

Independently created a Python email-classification lab adopted into Penn State’s SRA 111 curriculum, connecting data preparation, model training, and hands-on student exercises.

From raw email to a teaching lab

Prepared labeled email data, transformed text with TF-IDF, and trained a Naive Bayes classifier using pandas and scikit-learn. Saved model and vectorizer artifacts support repeatable classification exercises.

The lab gives students a way to examine model predictions and their limitations. A predicted probability is not proof that an email is safe.

Explore the teaching lab

More ways I build and investigate

Picture Point Password

A Java Swing teaching demo that uses ordered image clicks to explore authentication—and its limitations.

Java project ↗

Connected devices

Companion-robot prototyping with Raspberry Pi, sensors, and servo control at 4Tekies; separate Zigbee lab work explored wireless interception and weak configurations.

Robot prototype ↗ · Zigbee project ↗

Malware analysis

Examined 12 executable samples in a sandbox and documented process, registry, and network behavior.

Analysis report ↗

Beyond the code

A builder’s curiosity.
A security mindset.

I’m drawn to application security because understanding how software works and asking how it can fail belong together. My path has included writing Python and Java, building lab infrastructure, exploring connected devices, and helping other people learn.

I’ve also co-authored research on AI in cybersecurity education and served as president of Penn State Abington’s Cybersecurity & IT Student Association.

Read the publication

Villanova University
M.S. Software Engineering · Expected May 2028

Penn State Abington
B.S. Cybersecurity Analytics & Operations · 2026
Minor: Information Sciences & Technology
3.95 GPA · Magna Cum Laude

Experience at a glance

Level I IT Technician · Part-time

Hopewell Valley Regional School District · June 2026–Present

Administer Active Directory accounts and group memberships, resolve access issues, and investigate escalated support tickets. Troubleshoot application, hardware, and network problems using Cisco Meraki and on-site diagnostics, documenting work in IncidentIQ.

Prepared approximately 1,000 student Chromebooks through automated district Google enrollment and diagnosed and repaired Chromebook hardware issues.

Lead IST Lab Technician

Penn State Abington · January 2023–May 2026

Translated faculty-proposed capstone concepts into technical implementation plans by researching hardware, software, databases, and service requirements. Built a Raspberry Pi cluster for server workloads and JSON exchange, collaborating with university IT to connect it to a dedicated IoT/project VLAN.

Configured a segmented cybersecurity lab with three Windows target machines and three Kali Linux attack machines. Supported IoT and robotics capstones through hardware integration, troubleshooting, and tutoring, and trained four additional lab technicians.

Security Engineer Intern

4Tekies LLC · February 2024–October 2025

Designed a Raspberry Pi 4 companion-robot prototype for assisted-living residents, integrating motion, thermal, and heartbeat sensors, voice-responsive movement, and wireless charging.

Developed Python components for sensor-data collection and MongoDB storage, and collaborated on an AWS-hosted Oracle APEX caregiver dashboard. Implemented login controls, secured SSH access, and inspected device communications with Wireshark.

Machine Learning Security Intern

Penn State Abington · January–May 2025

Created the phishing detection teaching lab featured above.

Teaching, leadership & international learning

Led hands-on student workshops and took part in study-abroad experiences in Germany, Japan, Croatia, and most recently Poland. These experiences extended my learning beyond technical coursework and into different cultural settings.

The technical component of my international study included a telepresence robotics program at Hof University in Germany, working with TurtleBot, Raspberry Pi, and LiDAR.

Teaching & leadership ↗
International experiences ↗

Let’s connect

Good software starts
with good questions.

I’d love to talk about application security, software engineering, and opportunities to keep learning.

mjachura5130@gmail.com