Ruichen Han
My Cybersecurity Training
ReDelicious DC
Quick Facts
ReDelicious is a worker owned food lab cooperative dedicated to reducing food waste while building stronger, healthier communities throughout Washington, DC.
The organization rescues surplus food from farmers markets and other sources, transforming it into free meals, educational workshops, and community gatherings.
Its mission is to create community wealth by making food recovery, preservation, and sustainable living accessible to everyone.
By combining food rescue, cooperative ownership, and environmental education, ReDelicious promotes a more sustainable and equitable local food system.
ReDelicious DC
About the Organization
ReDelicious is committed to reducing food waste by recovering surplus food and redistributing it through free community meals, educational programming, and collaborative food preservation initiatives.
Through weekly gatherings, cooking demonstrations, fermentation projects, foraging education, and food distribution events, the cooperative empowers community members to reduce waste while improving access to fresh, healthy food. ReDelicious also promotes cooperative ownership and community driven economic development.
By fostering environmental stewardship, shared learning, and mutual aid, the organization creates opportunities for people to build meaningful relationships while strengthening local food security.
ReDelicious DC
Community Involvement
ReDelicious works closely with volunteers, worker owners, local farmers markets, and community members to recover food that would otherwise go to waste. The cooperative welcomes volunteers to participate in food collection, cooking, preservation, and weekly community meals.
The organization partners with mutual aid groups, food banks, urban farms, environmental organizations, and community cooperatives to expand food recovery and sustainability efforts throughout the Washington metropolitan area.
Through educational workshops, public events, and collaborative partnerships, ReDelicious continues to strengthen community engagement while promoting environmental responsibility and equitable access to nutritious food.
ReDelicious DC
Sources of Funding
ReDelicious is supported through grants, individual donations, monthly Patreon memberships, workshop registration fees, and community contributions that sustain its food recovery and educational programs.
The cooperative also receives financial support from community members, partner organizations, and sliding scale educational events that help fund food distribution, workshops, and shared community resources.
Funding is used to support labor, purchase equipment, maintain kitchen and farm infrastructure, expand educational programming, and strengthen food rescue initiatives that benefit communities throughout Washington, DC.
My Security Presentation
During the Cybersecurity & Defense Internship, I worked with Beth Cerrone and Jamie Kreider to learn the basics of cybersecurity and explore its practical applications.
Throughout the week, I worked with a nonprofit to develop cybersecurity solutions to protect against various cyber threats. I worked with my team to analyze the threats to the organization and then developed a comprehensive solution.
At the conclusion of this internship, our team pitched the final proposal to the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee, earning a microgrant to support the implementation of our proposal.
My Security Proposal Presentation
Throughout the program, we worked closely with ReDelicious DC to understand how the organization collects, stores, and protects information belonging to its donors and volunteers. As a Washington, D.C.-based food lab co-op, ReDelicious relies on community donations and memberships while working to rescue surplus food and redistribute resources throughout the local community. Our analysis revealed that the organization’s continued growth has increased both the amount and sensitivity of information entrusted to its digital systems.
The most pressing customer-facing issue is ReDelicious’s reliance on the free versions of Supabase and Vercel. Donor and volunteer information is stored through Supabase, but the free plan does not provide automated backups, creating the possibility of permanent data loss if information is accidentally deleted, corrupted, or compromised. ReDelicious also hosts its website through Vercel’s free plan, which limits the organization’s ability to configure firewall rules and IP blocking protections.
To address these vulnerabilities, we recommend upgrading to Supabase Pro and Vercel Pro. Supabase Pro would provide daily automated backups retained for seven days and additional storage capacity as ReDelicious’s donor and volunteer network expands. Vercel Pro would substantially expand firewall and IP-blocking customization, strengthening the organization’s ability to prevent unauthorized access and malicious traffic. Together, these investments strengthen data availability, integrity, and confidentiality while establishing a more resilient digital infrastructure capable of supporting ReDelicious as its community presence continues to grow.
Internship Highlights
I was given the unique opportunity to take exclusive tours of multiple government and security sites to speak directly with security professionals. During these tours, I was able to witness firsthand how cybersecurity operates at the national and international level.
I was able to visit the United States’ Security Innovation Lab. Throughout this visit, I was able to learn firsthand from government officials regarding how the government funds and establishes cyber-intelligence and cyber-counterintelligence technology.
We also toured the Homeland Security Investigations' (HSI) Technical Operations Center. During this visit, we learned how the government uses technology to track major crimes including wire-fraud, human trafficking, child exploitation, and more.
In order to apply the skills I learned throughout the internship, I worked directly with an organization based in the Washington, D.C. area, ReDelicious DC, to discuss their company's cybersecurity needs.
After three meetings where I walked through the organization model, protected information, and staff training of the nonprofit, I worked with my team to create a staff training protocol and threat analysis for my partner.
At the end of the internship, I advocated on behalf of, and received funding for, my organization partner to implement the cybersecurity training protocols so they can best protect their client information and continue to develop with a reduced fear of cyberattacks and cybersecurity threats.
To learn more about the world of cybersecurity, I was given the unique opportunity to speak directly with cybersecurity experts from multiple organizations and backgrounds.
I worked directly with one of the leading consultants in Cyber Threat Management, and a lead Cyber Consultant from Ernst & Young, Phuong Nguyen, to learn about common threat assessment and cybersecurity counterintelligence. I also heard from the Director of Government Compliance for KPMG, Lisa Mathews, and a former Department of Justice Prosecutor, Brian Levine.
Throughout the internship, I also heard presentations from and spoke with representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Agency. To learn the physical side of cybersecurity, we also had the unique opportunity to meet with globally recognized penetration testers and network threat assessors.
In order to put the skills we learned to the test, I had the unique opportunity to work with cybersecurity software typically used in graduate-level instructional courses. This provided me with a hands-on environment to develop and apply a wide range of cybersecurity skills.
I began with network cybersecurity, completing labs focused on network security and Linux to gain a deeper understanding of how networks communicate and where vulnerabilities may arise. This experience highlighted the ways in which cybersecurity threats can disrupt or compromise these communications, reinforcing the importance of proactive defense measures.
Building on these Linux skills, I participated in capture-the-flag coding competitions and explored virtual rooms designed to simulate real-world cybersecurity challenges. These activities tested both my technical abilities and problem-solving skills, allowing me to apply classroom concepts in practical, scenario-based settings.