The Team
SIG is built and maintained by a small team of practitioners who believe open-source tooling is the best path to transparent, auditable security. The mission started on the ground, it continues in the network, across time zones, from the US to Romania.
T. Burns
FounderLead EngineerSecurity International Group · HARDN-XDR Author · Marine Veteran · U.S.
Marine turned engineer who answered the call to defend the digital frontlines. After serving through deployments and later working in private security and law enforcement, including OSINT and computer forensics supporting missing children investigations, the transition to cybersecurity felt inevitable.
The next front line isn't always visible. The fight moved from roads and rooftops to networks and protocols. HARDN-XDR was built from that conviction: that open-source, auditable security tooling should be accessible to every system administrator and defender, not just enterprise teams with large budgets.
Today SIG focuses on Debian-based Linux security hardening for cloud servers, VPS instances, and local hosts, extending that mission to container security, DevSecOps pipelines, and threat intelligence tooling, all open-source and MIT licensed.
Alex Rionica
Co-FounderSenior Solutions ArchitectSecurity International Group · Founder, Cyber Synapse S.R.L. · Romania
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Linux and Unix specialist who has been running open-source systems since childhood. Founder of Cyber Synapse S.R.L., a Romanian Linux and Unix services company delivering tailored solutions for security, infrastructure, and compliance across cloud and on-premise environments.
A core contributor to the HARDN project, Alex brings deep expertise in system administration, network configuration, security hardening, and automation with tools like Ansible. His work spans virtualization, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), compliance auditing, and custom scripting for enterprise Linux environments.
Alex leads PingTeam, the Professional Linux Group of Romania, a community of senior Linux and Unix specialists publishing technical material in Romanian, English, German, and Spanish. He is also part of the UNIX Europe Professional Community, an international network connecting practitioners who run Linux and Unix as their daily driver. His mission: software freedom, empowering developers, and keeping technology open and accessible for all.
George Cindea
Lead DevOps EngineerSecurity International Group · Docker Security · CI/CD Pipeline Hardening · Romania
DevOps engineer specializing in container security and CI/CD pipeline hardening. George leads the HARDN-Docker effort, driving CIS Docker Benchmark enforcement, rootless container configurations, and hardened image builds across the SIG platform.
His focus is securing the software delivery pipeline from first commit to production deployment: hardened Dockerfiles, non-root runtime enforcement, seccomp and AppArmor profiles, read-only filesystems, and policy-as-code gates that fail builds before non-compliant containers ever reach a registry.
George also works on GitHub Actions and GitLab CI integration for HARDN compliance checks, helping teams shift security left without adding friction to their development workflows.
Chauncey Pelton
Lead Systems EngineerBackend DeveloperSecurity International Group · Systems Architecture · Backend Engineering · Vietnam
Systems engineer and backend developer with a focus on low-level Linux infrastructure and the core services that power the HARDN platform. Chauncey drives the architecture of HARDN's backend components, service orchestration, and daemon design, ensuring every module is built for reliability and minimal attack surface.
His work spans system service design, inter-process communication, hardened runtime environments, and the backend logic behind HARDN's compliance reporting and monitoring pipelines. He works closely with the team to ensure backend systems meet CIS and STIG requirements by default, not as an afterthought.
Chauncey brings a disciplined engineering mindset to the project, balancing performance, security, and maintainability across the stack. His contributions keep the HARDN codebase clean, auditable, and production-ready.
Career Timeline
Enlistment & Service
Served in the Marine Corps through deployment and training environments, developing leadership, discipline, and the ability to operate decisively under pressure. These experiences became the foundation for every approach to problem-solving and team execution.
Private Security & Law Enforcement
Private Security Contractor and LEO patrol operations, gang investigations, OSINT, and computer forensics supporting global operations for missing children. Applied tactical experience while developing critical investigative and digital forensics skills.
IT, Networking & Cloud
IT Support, IT Technician, and Network Engineer roles with multi-cloud and security certifications. Built foundational skills in systems administration, development, networking protocols, infrastructure management, and cybersecurity.
DevSecOps & Open Source Security
Specializing in CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, security analytics, and cloud-native architectures. Building HARDN and HARDN-XDR, open-source Debian security hardening and extended detection response for servers, VPS, and local hosts.
Projects
Debian-based security hardening and extended detection response. CIS-aligned, built in Rust, Bash, C, and Python, the flagship SIG project.
Hardened CIS-compliant Dockerfile for Debian 13, application control, data management, and zero-intrusion capability.
Automatically updated malicious IP database with geolocation mapping and threat analysis. Open-source threat intelligence.
Windows Runtime Analysis & Intrusion Threat Hunter, 14 scan modules across YARA, behavioral heuristics, persistence, and live process analysis.
“The fight moved from roads and rooftops to networks and protocols. It still needs the same people: those who've stood the watch and kept their bearing when it matters most.”
T. Burns, Founder · Security International Group
Contribute to HARDN
HARDN is MIT licensed and open to contributions. Security researchers, veterans, and developers are welcome.
View on GitHubVeterans in Cyber
Resources, mentorship, and community for military veterans and law enforcement transitioning into cybersecurity and cloud.
combat2cloud.com