Vanessa Madison

About Vanessa Madison

Curiosity drives everything I build, at the intersection of secure software, applied AI, and cloud automation. My focus is to engineer systems that remain resilient, adaptive, and ethical as complexity and scale increase.Security is not treated as an afterthought or a checklist in my workflows. It is an engineering discipline. Systems are designed to enable progress while holding up under real-world pressure. The goal is not just to secure applications, but to engineer infrastructure that endures.I am currently working as an Associate Security Analyst in a regulated healthcare environment, with hands-on experience in incident response, phishing triage, and security automation aligned with strict HIPAA requirements. As a DoD VICEROY Fellow alumnus, my recent work includes designing and deploying automation workflows that eliminate over 15 hours per week of manual triage while preserving auditability and compliance.I founded ILLAPEX as an independent security engineering practice to push beyond conventional approaches. Our work includes post-quantum secure messaging, metadata-driven phishing triage, zero-trust application design, and AI-assisted security workflows. My goal is to take systems from concept to production with strong cryptographic foundations and long-term maintainability built in from day one.My mission is to build technology that is both innovative and dependable systems, designed to survive the next decade of digital evolution and support responsible adoption of intelligent systems.

Experience

1. Associate Security Analyst

   University of Colorado Anschutz

   Jun 2025 — Present · Denver, CO, US

   Supporting the CU Anschutz Information Security Office by monitoring threats via SIEM tools and Microsoft Defender. Investigating phishing and endpoint activity, assisting with incident response and vulnerability scans, and contributing to HIPAA-aligned compliance and risk documentation in a high-stakes research healthcare environment.

Education

• University of Colorado Boulder - Leeds School of Business

  Bachelor of Business Administration - BBA

• University of Colorado Denver

  Bachelor's degree, Computer Science