Azam Alburiki
Azam Alburiki

Hi there, I'm

Azam Alburiki

Cybersecurity & digital forensics student and certified penetration tester. I find the vulnerabilities attackers exploit, then turn them into clear, prioritized fixes.

eCPPTv3 eJPTv2 eCIR CompTIA CySA+ CompTIA Security+ Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
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6
Professional certifications
320
KAUST x NCA training hours
5
Hands-on projects
3+ yrs
Studying & building
About me

A little about who I am

I'm a cybersecurity and digital forensics student at Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University. I came in through computer science, and after a year weighing it against the rise of AI, I chose security. My focus is offensive security: understanding exactly how attackers compromise systems, so I can help defend them.

Over the past three years I've earned six professional certifications, built security tooling that runs on a supercomputer, spoken at a bootcamp, and designed capture-the-flag challenges for my university. I work across both sides of the field: penetration testing to expose real risk, and digital forensics and detection to investigate and contain incidents.

Most recently I completed 320 training hours of the KAUST x NCA Cybersecurity Specialization Summer Program with the University of Glasgow and King Khalid University, working on AI security, IoT and industrial systems, and hands-on blue-team defence. When something looks impossible or unfamiliar, my instinct is the same: open it up, work it out myself, get it wrong the first time like anyone would, and keep going until it works, Inshallah.

Experience

Where I've been learning & working

Aug 2023 to Present

Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics Student

Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University · Al Khobar

Full-time undergraduate studies spanning operating systems, networks, cryptography, and the fundamentals of securing modern systems.

Jan 2026 to Present · Internship

Cybersecurity Trainee, KAUST Academy

KAUST Academy Cybersecurity Program · Saudi Arabia & UK

Selected for the KAUST Academy Cybersecurity Specialisation, one intensive program that took me from core security fundamentals all the way to hands-on research abroad. It moved through several host universities, ending in the UK:

  • University of Glasgow · AI & IoT/OT Security. LLM vulnerabilities like prompt injection and jailbreaking, IoT protocols, and industrial-control-system security.
  • King Khalid University · Blue Team & DFIR. SOC operations, threat hunting with SIEM/EDR, incident response, and digital forensics.
  • KFUPM · Advanced Reconnaissance. OSINT with Shodan and Maltego, firewall/IDS evasion, and network penetration in lab environments.
  • Princess Nourah University · Core Foundations. Network and web security, cryptography and PKI, and offensive mechanics.
KAUST Academy cohort at the University of Glasgow Cybersecurity research session at the University of Glasgow Cohort group photo at the University of Glasgow

With the KAUST Academy cohort at the University of Glasgow, summer 2026.

Feb 2026 · Speaker

Guest Speaker, "How the Internet Really Works"

Capsule Tahawul Initiative · CyberKickStart Bootcamp

Spoke to a 3-week bootcamp on network fundamentals, covering everything from undersea cables and the 2G to 5G journey to real-world network attacks, and was recognized as both a speaker and organizer.

Sep 2026 to Present

Deputy Manager, Programs Committee & Head of PR

IAU Rovers · Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University

Run public relations for the group and help plan its programs and campus events.

Nov 2026 to Present

Vice President, Event Committee

Cybersecurity Club · Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University

Plan and organize the club's events, from workshops to competitions.

Selected projects

Things I've built

A mix of academic capstones, research tools, and competition challenges, each one turning a security idea into something people can actually use.

KAUST Capstone · Team

Massar (Attack Path Hypothesis Engine)

2026 · KAUST Cybersecurity Capstone

An exposure-based engine that maps a network, enumerates the attacker paths the evidence actually supports, and ranks them deterministically by likelihood and impact, so a defender sees what to fix first, not just another list of CVEs. A language model adds plausibility and detection notes, but it never orders the results, which keeps everything reproducible and auditable.

My contribution: a compliance-mapping layer that ties each recommended fix to the controls a Saudi organization actually reports against, NCA ECC and SAMA CSF first, with NIST 800-53 and ISO 27001 cross-referenced, every reference source-verified and bilingual (EN/AR).
PythonNetworkXStreamlitLangChainNCA ECC / SAMA CSF Visit Massar
Live tool

GPU Password-Cracking Benchmark & Auditor

Aug 2026 · KAUST Academy (HPC)

I built a password-auditing platform that runs on the KAUST Ibex supercomputer, measuring exactly how fast real hardware cracks different kinds of password protection, then turning the results into a plain-English security report with hardening advice mapped to the national cybersecurity controls.

On 3 NVIDIA V100 GPUs, a weakly stored 8-character password falls in about 15 minutes. The same password stored properly would take thousands of years.

I also made a free browser tool so anyone can test their own password's strength. It runs entirely on your device and never sends anything anywhere.

PythonHashcatHPCNCA-ECC Try the live tool
Machine learning

AI Network Intrusion Detection

Feb to Jun 2026 · IAU

An intelligent system that watches network traffic and flags malicious port-scanning. Trained on the CIC-IDS2017 dataset with a Random Forest model (benchmarked against SVM), tuned specifically to keep false alarms low enough for a real security operations team.

Random ForestPythonIDS
Security & privacy

Privacy-First Phishing Simulator

Feb to Jun 2026 · IAU

A "secured-by-design" awareness platform for phishing, smishing, and QR-code attacks. It teaches people the moment they click, redirecting them straight to training, while cryptographically masking every identifier so organizations can measure risk safely and ethically.

DREAD modelingSHA-2NCA-ECC
Competition design

Capture-the-Flag Challenge Design

2025 · IAU & Cyber Security Club

Designed and deployed hands-on hacking challenges for university-wide CTF competitions, focused on digital forensics and cryptography. One was a steganography module with layered puzzles that push players to carve files and read hex to find hidden flags.

Digital ForensicsSteganographyCryptography
Certifications

Credentials I've earned

Backed by 300+ hours of hands-on labs on the INE platform.

eCPPTv3

Certified Professional Penetration Tester · INE · 2026

eJPTv2

Junior Penetration Tester · INE · 2026

eCIR

Certified Incident Responder · INE · 2026

CompTIA Security+

Foundational cybersecurity · CompTIA · 2026

CompTIA CySA+

Cybersecurity Analyst · CompTIA · 2026

CompTIA CSAP

Security Analytics Professional · CompTIA · 2026

KAUST Academy Specialization

Applied AI & IoT/OT Security · Univ. of Glasgow · 2026

TryHackMe Bootcamp

4-month blue-team bootcamp · Cyber Security Club · 2026
Skills & tools

What I work with

Offensive Security

Penetration TestingActive Directory Exploitation Pivoting & TunnelingExploit Development OSINT (Shodan, Maltego)Firewall / IDS Evasion

Defensive & Blue Team

SOC OperationsSIEM & EDR Threat HuntingIncident Response (DFIR) Malware Analysis

Digital Forensics

Host & Network ForensicsSteganography File CarvingHex Analysis

AI & Emerging Tech

LLM SecurityIoT Security (CoAP, DTLS, OSCORE) OT / ICS & SCADA (Modbus, DNP3)Machine Learning

Foundations

Network SecurityCryptography & PKI Web Application SecurityPythonLinux
Beyond the keyboard

Community & service

Some of what I'm proudest of happens away from the screen.

Community Leadership
Batch 224

Community Admin

Cybersecurity students community

One of two admins for the Batch 224 cybersecurity students community, keeping members connected, sharing opportunities, and supporting each other's growth in the field.

Hajj Service Medal

Scout Volunteer, 2025 Hajj Season

IAU Scouts Club · Saudi Arabian Boy Scouts Association

Represented my university in a national scouting mission serving pilgrims during Hajj, walking more than 10 km a day through the holy sites to guide crowds and provide humanitarian support under demanding conditions. Awarded the Hajj Service Medal for dedication and performance.

Activities Committee

Cyber Security Club

Oct 2025 to Present · IAU

Planning technical events, workshops, and awareness campaigns, and coordinating CTF competitions and guest-speaker sessions for fellow students.

  • Certificate of Appreciation, Cyber Security Club (2026)
  • Recognition as CyberKickStart Bootcamp Speaker & Organizer