About
Network engineer by trade, photographer by habit.
I'm Ricky Vu, based in Adelaide. Most of my working life has been inside network operations centres, and the last two years have been about turning that hands-on experience into a formal grounding in cybersecurity through a Master of IT at Flinders University. Outside of work, I've spent about as long behind a camera, which grew into a small photography business and, this year, a national award.
01 β Network & Cybersecurity
Nearly a decade in network operations, now formalised
I started in network operations in Vietnam in 2012, not long after finishing my engineering degree, and spent the next several years inside NOC teams at FPT Telecom and then DIGI-TEXX: monitoring core and access network channels, coordinating incident response, and writing the documentation that trained the next person after me. It's the kind of work that teaches you to stay calm when something's actually broken and a customer is waiting.
After moving to Australia, I went back to study β a Master of IT majoring in Network and Cybersecurity Systems at Flinders University, finishing in 2025 β and picked up CCNA and Cisco CyberOps Associate along the way, with CompTIA Security+ in progress. The degree gave me the formal side of what I'd already been doing on the job, plus a proper foundation in the security half I wanted to grow into. I'm also just genuinely curious about technology outside my core field: I built this entire site myself while teaching myself Next.js and React.
Network Operations Center Operator Β· DIGI-TEXX Vietnam
2021 β 2023
- Deployed and monitored agents across servers and network devices, detecting and reporting incidents to stakeholders.
- Set up customer-required monitoring systems and documented procedures for new trainees.
Network Operations Center Operator Β· FPT Telecom Vietnam
2012 β 2015
- Operated and monitored Core, Access and International network channels.
- Coordinated incident response and implemented optimisation plans to stabilise the network.
Certifications
- CompTIA Security+ Β· 2026 (in progress)
- Cisco CyberOps Associate Β· 2024
- Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Β· 2024
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) Β· 2011
Networking
- Cisco Configuration
- Network Design
- VLAN, Routing & Switching
- CCNA / CCNP-level Knowledge
Cybersecurity
- Information Security
- Threat Modelling
- Intrusion Detection
- SIEM
- Firewall & Risk Management
Systems & Cloud
- Linux Server Management
- AWS (EC2, IAM, VPC, S3)
- GCP Networking & IAM Basics
Support & Tools
- Incident Monitoring & Reporting
- Technical Documentation
- JIRA
Also exploring
- Next.js / React (self-taught, built this site)
02 β Technical Projects
Projects I can actually walk you through
The Master's gave me room to build things end to end rather than just study them. A few I'm most glad I did:
- Enterprise Network Design and SimulationA complete enterprise network, modelled on a company I actually worked at, designed and built end to end in Cisco Packet Tracer.
- POODLE Attack Simulation and MitigationRebuilt a real SSLv3 vulnerability from scratch in a lab, to understand exactly how it works rather than just reading about it.
- Smart Home Brute-force Detection and MitigationMy Master's thesis: a lightweight Node-RED pipeline that catches brute-force logins on a Home Assistant system and puts the alert on the homeowner's own dashboard, not just a hidden log.
- Responsible AI Integration in Healthcare CybersecurityA governance report on adopting AI for hospital cybersecurity responsibly, grounded in NIST and ISO frameworks rather than hype.
Plus more covering cloud automation, data analysis, disaster recovery planning, project management, and the live website for my own photography studio β view all projects.
03 β Photography
The same habit, pointed at a camera
I picked up a second-hand Nikon D90 in 2012, the same year I started in network operations, and it turned into a habit that's stuck for over a decade: weddings and portraits for friends, then landscapes across South Australia after I moved here. That eventually became Memory Lane Photography, a studio I co-founded with my friend Mark Lee here in Adelaide.
I also built and maintain the studio's website myself, from the ground up in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and I'm the one who keeps it running day to day: content updates, bookings, and everything in between.
This year, one of my photos, Little Gull, a seagull standing on the sand at sunset, won Champion Wildlife Print in Show at the 2026 Royal Adelaide Show. Fourteen years after that first camera, it's the moment that's meant the most.
Read the full photography story β
Education
- Master of IT (Network and Cybersecurity Systems)Flinders University, Adelaide Β· 2024 β 2025
- Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical, Electronics β Telecommunication)Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam Β· 2007 β 2012
Network engineering and photography don't have much in common on paper, but both come down to paying attention β to a system long enough to notice when something's off, or to a scene long enough to catch the moment it says something.
Get in touch