Geoffrey West — Cybersecurity Specialist

Bio

I'm a Royal Canadian Navy veteran and cybersecurity practitioner, now based in Brisbane. After twenty years administering HR operations, payroll systems, and compliance frameworks for hundreds of personnel — including a high-trust inter-allied defence liaison posting overseas — I bring something most cyber practitioners don't: deep, lived experience applying policy frameworks under real operational pressure.

My focus is GRC — governance, risk, and compliance. I understand what it means to work within strict regulatory environments, communicate policy to both frontline staff and senior leadership, and maintain rigorous documentation standards. That's not theory for me; it was my daily work for two decades.

Currently building on that foundation with formal cybersecurity credentials and hands-on technical skills, with an eye toward roles in compliance, risk management, and security operations.

LH

Diploma in Cyber Security

Lighthouse Labs · Jan 2025

Earned
S+

CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701)

CompTIA · Jun 2025

Earned
AWS

AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials

Amazon Web Services · Aug 2025

Earned
ADK
AR

ADKAR Change Management

ProSci · Mar 2022

Earned
CSC

Canadian Securities Course

Canadian Securities Institute · 2007

Earned

Work History

Service & Retention Consultant

2025 — Present

Australian general insurer · Brisbane

Customer service and retention specialist in a high-volume call centre environment. Qualified in Tier 2 Insurance under ASIC RG146 compliance — continuing to develop applied regulatory knowledge in a civilian financial services context.

Cybersecurity Specialist (Transition)

2023 — 2025

Independent · Cybersecurity training and professional development

Completed an intensive cybersecurity diploma covering GRC frameworks, incident response, threat defence, and secure architecture. Earned CompTIA Security+ and AWS Cloud Practitioner. Actively building on two decades of compliance and records management experience to transition into GRC and risk-focused security roles.

Human Resources Administrator · Petty Officer Second Class

2002 — 2023

Royal Canadian Navy · Halifax & Esquimalt

Twenty years of service across both Canadian fleets, multiple warships, and two international deployments. Led Pay & Records departments of up to 20 staff, administering HR operations and payroll for up to 400 personnel under strict compliance frameworks. Final overseas posting in a senior administrative role within an inter-allied defence liaison environment requiring a high-level security clearance. Awarded the Canadian Decoration and South West Asia Service Medal. Full service record →

Lab Work

Self-Hosted Infrastructure Lab

Privacy & Resilience · Self-hosted · Ongoing

Ongoing Data Sovereignty Self-Hosting Resilience

Maintaining a small self-hosted environment to reduce reliance on third-party cloud services and build practical experience in privacy, resilience, access control, and service administration. The emphasis is on data sovereignty and operational competence rather than publishing an inventory of the underlying infrastructure.

Capabilities in Use

DATA

Private data services — Self-managed storage, synchronisation, media, and collaboration services with a focus on keeping personal data under direct control.

IAM

Identity & access — Practical use of strong authentication, credential-management, encryption, and secure remote-access patterns.

P2P

Open & distributed systems — Hands-on experimentation with decentralised protocols and independently operated services.

WEB

Web publishing — Operating personal web services with attention to TLS, DNS, exposure reduction, and separation between public-facing and private systems.

BCP

Resilience & recovery — Backup, restore, and continuity practices designed to reduce dependency on any single service or provider.

Skills Demonstrated

Systems Administration Network Architecture Backup & Recovery Design PKI & Certificate Management Hardware MFA Distributed Protocols DNS Management Data Sovereignty Practice

Kindle Firmware Jailbreak & KOReader Deployment

Personal Lab · B023-series Kindle · Firmware 4.1.1 → 4.1.4

Completed Embedded Linux Right-to-Repair

Performed a full jailbreak of a B023-series Kindle, stepping through incremental official firmware updates from 4.1.1 to 4.1.4 as a prerequisite. Executed a community-developed exploit chain to gain root-level access — installing a developer key, MobileRead Kindlet Kit, KUAL launcher, and DevCerts keystore — before deploying KOReader as the end payload, restoring full usability to hardware Amazon no longer supports.

Methodology

Firmware staging — Stepped through 4.1.1 → 4.1.2 → 4.1.3 → 4.1.4 via official OTA process; isolated device in airplane mode to prevent unintended cloud sync or state changes.

Jailbreak installation — Applied Kindle 4 Jailbreak package via the native firmware update mechanism. The exploit installs a single developer key and does not modify any existing files — a minimal, reversible footprint.

MKK & KUAL — Installed MobileRead Kindlet Kit to enable sideloaded Java extensions, then KUAL (Kindle Unified Application Launcher) as a custom launcher interface.

DevCerts keystore — Applied developer certificate trust update to permit unsigned package execution outside Amazon's signing chain.

KOReader deployment — Extracted and installed KOReader to root filesystem; verified successful launch via KUAL library entry.

GRC Considerations

Asset Lifecycle Management

NIST CSF · ID.AM

Hardware assets should not become liabilities through vendor decisions alone. Extending the functional life of a B023 Kindle via community tools is a direct application of lifecycle stewardship — evaluating asset value independent of the vendor's commercial interests.

Vendor Dependency Risk

NIST RMF · RA-3 · ISO 27001 A.15

Amazon's May 2026 Kindle Store cutoff illustrates how platform-controlled obsolescence creates third-party risk. A device that functions perfectly can be rendered inoperable by a server-side business decision — a risk that should be accounted for in any asset or procurement policy.

Change Management

NIST CSF · PR.IP · ADKAR

Sequential, staged firmware updates mirror controlled change management practice: no skipping versions, verifying state at each step, and testing before proceeding. The exploit itself is minimal and reversible by design.

Application Control & Trust

ASD Essential Eight · Maturity Level 1

Bypassing Amazon's certificate signing chain via a developer keystore is a direct illustration of how application whitelisting and code-signing controls work — and how they can be legitimately circumvented on personal hardware when the vendor no longer provides a viable path.

Ethical Considerations

This project was conducted on personally owned hardware, with no circumvention of DRM for content piracy and no commercial intent. The motivation is explicitly aligned with right-to-repair values: a functioning device should not be rendered a paperweight by a unilateral vendor decision.

Amazon's announcement that approximately 2 million devices will lose Kindle Store access in May 2026 — estimated to generate over 624 tonnes of unnecessary e-waste — validates this position. The Restart Project has called the move "deliberately wasteful." EU Directive 2024/825 now explicitly addresses software-induced obsolescence as a consumer protection matter. Jailbreaking a personal device to restore its utility is not a circumvention of law — it is an assertion of ownership.

Personal device only No DRM bypass for piracy Reversible intervention No commercial use No third-party devices

Skills Demonstrated

Firmware Management Exploit Chain Execution Certificate Trust Manipulation Embedded Linux Navigation Vendor Risk Assessment Asset Lifecycle Thinking Ethical Scope Definition Change Management Practice

Geoffrey West.