// 01. about

The "I can" mindset

It started with physical locks: how they work, and how they fail. That curiosity moved into the digital world. I dual-booted my first computer at 10, built my own home network lab, and worked in web development before finding cybersecurity as a formal discipline.

Today I work across both sides of the fence: hunting threats and responding to incidents on defence, and blackbox penetration testing and attack-surface recon on offence. Where the tooling I need doesn't exist, I build it.

My day-to-day is security operations: SIEM and SOAR across hybrid and cloud infrastructure. I use Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, QRadar and Nessus to detect, investigate, contain and remediate threats, working to ISO 27001, NIST CSF and the ASD Essential Eight.

I know Microsoft Defender, identity management and Active Directory well, and I troubleshoot Windows Server, virtualization platforms and endpoint security. I restore critical infrastructure, lead threat hunts, and align security architecture, controls and policy with recognised standards and with what the business needs.

$ cat skills.txt
Incident Response Threat Hunting Remediation Digital Forensics Splunk · SPL Sentinel · KQL Microsoft Defender Active Directory Phishing Analysis Threat Intelligence OSINT Attack Surface Mgmt Penetration Testing Bug Bounty Android Security Frida · jadx Burp Suite Reverse Engineering Web App Security TLS / PKI MITRE ATT&CK STIX / MISP Risk Assessment Security Awareness Windows Server Virtualization SOAR Playbooks IAM · MFA · SSO ISO 27001 NIST CSF Essential Eight CIS Controls Python TypeScript PowerShell Go Machine Learning
$ cat toolbox.txt
SIEM & Log AnalysisSplunk (SPL) · MS Sentinel (KQL) · IBM QRadar · ELK Stack · AlienVault
Incident Response & ForensicsTheHive · Autopsy · FTK Imager · DeepBlue · Event Viewer · Maltego
Vulnerability ManagementTenable.io · Nessus · Security Onion · SQLMap · Metasploit
Network SecurityWireshark · Nmap · Fiddler · Sguil · Cisco Packet Tracer
Cloud & EndpointAzure Security · CrowdStrike · MS Purview · Cisco Umbrella · ISE · FTD
Cloud & VirtualizationAWS · Azure · GCP · VMware · Hyper-V · VirtualBox · Citrix
// 02. certifications

Certifications & education

Security Blue Team

Blue Team Level 1

A 24-hour practical incident response exam covering phishing analysis, threat intel, digital forensics (Autopsy), SIEM (Splunk) and IR (DeepBlue, Event Viewer).

Cisco

Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate

Security operations: monitoring, intrusion analysis, host and network forensics, incident handling.

Fortinet

Fortinet Certified Associate: Cybersecurity

Plus FortiGate 7.4 Operator: firewall policy, VPN and security fabric operations.

$ ls ./specializations
Google Cybersecurity CertificateGoogle
Fortinet FortiGate 7.4 OperatorFortinet
Foundations of Operationalizing MITRE ATT&CKAttackIQ
Career Essentials in CybersecurityMicrosoft & LinkedIn
Microsoft Cybersecurity AnalystMicrosoft · Mar 2024 · ID EFLYHF3X9GU7 · verify ↗
Splunk Search ExpertSplunk · Apr 2024 · ID 3X35V5VXLPY2 · verify ↗
Splunk Knowledge ManagerSplunk · Apr 2024 · ID WDQC5FDCQWMD · verify ↗
Palo Alto Networks CybersecurityPalo Alto Networks · Apr 2024 · ID 3PC9R95LDEYV · verify ↗
IBM & ISC2 Cybersecurity SpecialistIBM · Apr 2024 · ID 5GKDJBDMY9NU · verify ↗
Security Analyst FundamentalsIBM · Mar 2024 · ID KKA55CN9BUCJ · verify ↗
IT Fundamentals for CybersecurityIBM · Mar 2024 · ID GLHVXP9VKBYG · verify ↗
Cybersecurity Attack & Defense FundamentalsEC-Council · Mar 2024 · ID 9WTL66NUBCTQ · verify ↗
Cybersecurity FoundationsInfoSec · Apr 2024 · ID 5H6Q3VM7BK8M · verify ↗
AWS Educate: Introduction to Cloud 101Amazon Web Services · Mar 2024 · verify ↗
$ cat education.txt
Level 7

Micro-credential: Cyber Forensics & Security

The University of Auckland · Sep – Nov 2022

Level 6

Higher National Diploma: Cybersecurity

Unitec · Jul 2022 – Jul 2023

Level 5

Micro-credential: Cybersecurity

Yoobee College of Creative Innovation · Sep – Dec 2022

Level 5

Higher National Diploma: Information Systems

Unitec · Jul 2020 – Jul 2021

// 03. tooling

Tools I've built

Production-grade security tooling with tests, dashboards and real-world use. Private tools can be demoed on request.

OSINT · Recon

ReconForge

An attack-surface and OSINT platform that runs scoped recon, case investigation and intel projects end to end.

  • 80-module deep scan pipeline with resumable scans and wildcard scope enforcement
  • Web dashboard, CLI, TUI and MCP server interfaces
  • Exports to HTML, PDF, STIX + ATT&CK, MISP and detection-rule formats
  • Sanitized export mode that strips secrets, PII, cookies and methodology, then re-verifies the output
  • 973 automated tests
PythonTypeScriptReactSTIX 2.1MISP
// private: demo on request
Threat Intel

CTI Aggregation Platform

Expands the deepdarkCTI source list into a working threat intelligence platform that ingests, enriches and tracks the threat landscape.

  • 40+ live-verified sources: C2 and botnet blocklists (Feodo, ThreatView, C2IntelFeeds), phishing feeds, ransomware leak-site trackers
  • CVE enrichment with NVD, FIRST EPSS, Exploit-DB, CISA and the GitHub Advisory Database
  • MITRE ATT&CK campaign mapping, victim geography, alerting and a dashboard
PythonSQLiteATT&CKEPSSPowerShell
// private: demo on request
Offensive · Web

PenScope

A browser extension for scoped web application testing: it maps a target's attack surface as you browse and drives focused hunts.

  • Wildcard scope collector that maps every discovered subdomain
  • One-click "Hunt this host" aimed at the real scheme and port
  • Human-in-the-loop by design: every hunt is started by the tester
  • Automated end-to-end and unit test suites
JavaScriptChrome MV3Playwright
// private: demo on request
TLS · Proxy Engineering

OVERSEER

A local HTTPS interception proxy for analysing a desktop client's traffic. It's built around how modern clients defend against man-in-the-middle attacks, and it gives way to those defences instead of breaking them.

  • Private local CA with per-host certificates generated on demand and signed off the event loop, so the proxy never blocks
  • Detects certificate pinning and embedded CA bundles, then switches that client build to passthrough tunnelling. It never tampers with the client.
  • Remembers trust per client version and re-tests new builds, resuming interception only when TLS succeeds
  • Interception Health panel plus --status / --doctor diagnostics for CA trust, firewall rules and pinning state
  • Passive network monitor that keeps working while interception is paused; structured logging
  • Packaged Windows release with SHA-256 verification and smoke tests
PythonasyncioX.509 / cryptographyTLSWindows
// private: demo on request
Bug Bounty · Automation

Multi-Agent Bug Bounty Pipeline

A Claude Code plugin that runs bug bounty research as a staged pipeline of specialised agents, where nothing is reported until it has been independently reproduced and hostilely reviewed.

  • Phased workflow: passive intel → attack-surface mapping → hunting → validation → reporting, with an end-to-end autopilot that always stops at a human submit gate
  • Agent chain per finding: hunter → skeptic (tries to disprove it) → escalator (proves real impact) → verifier (reproduces from scratch) → triager (hostile severity and scope review), plus chainer, prowler and post-submission monitor agents
  • Pre-tool-use guardrail hooks: scope guard (may this call reach this host?), egress guard, and a verify gate that blocks writing anything into a report that wasn't observed
  • Program policy and scope transcribed to disk before any traffic; MCP integrations for HackerOne, YesWeHack, Burp, Kali, Nessus and Android tooling
Claude CodeMCPPythonBurpNessusKali
// private: demo on request
OSINT

OSINT Arsenal Directory

A curated directory of roughly 39,000 OSINT tools and data sources, built with a wave-based agent orchestration workflow that recovers from its own journal when a run is interrupted.

  • Large-scale collection, de-duplication and categorisation of public OSINT resources
  • Resumable, journal-backed pipeline for long multi-agent runs
Agent OrchestrationPythonData Pipelines
// private: demo on request
Trust & Safety

Bot-Network Detection Analysis

An investigation of 12,221 user-uploaded audio records to find content that bypassed normal moderation and curation.

  • Found bulk-upload pipelines through filename-as-identity accounts, where the top "artist" was an unrenamed default file
  • Flagged duplicate-content farming and templated bot personas
  • Separated coordinated rings from low-effort noise
PythonData AnalysisPattern Detection
// analysis: details on request
$ ls ./labs
Mobile Lab

Rooted Android Test Rig

  • Built and maintain a rooted Android device (crDroid, KernelSU) for mobile app security testing
  • Frida instrumentation, Burp CA in the system trust store, adb and scrcpy, and recovery/fastboot workflows
  • Diagnosed a bootloop from dmesg and pstore forensics as a low-battery brownout rather than a software fault
AndroidKernelSUFridaBurpadb
Blue Team Lab

SIEM Implementation & Threat Hunting

  • Built an isolated lab of Windows VMs forwarding logs to Splunk to generate and study real attack telemetry
  • Wrote custom SPL detections and dashboards, including brute-force logins caught as a spike in failed logons (Event ID 4625) followed by a success (4624), plus malware execution
  • Ran each case from alert to closure: enriched IOCs with OSINT, mapped the activity to MITRE ATT&CK and wrote an incident report
SplunkSPLWindows Event LogsATT&CKOSINT
Vuln Management Lab

Vulnerability Assessment Lab

  • Built an isolated VirtualBox lab of Windows VMs for hands-on security testing
  • Ran comprehensive Nessus scans and prioritised findings by risk
  • Patched and hardened the hosts against CIS Benchmarks, then rescanned to confirm every fix
NessusCIS BenchmarksVirtualBoxWindows
$ ls github.com/CyberAmirx
Python

DeadMansSwitch

A dead man's switch utility that triggers configured actions if the operator stops checking in.

→ view repo
Python

headlessScreenshotBot

Headless-browser screenshot automation, useful for visual recon and change monitoring.

→ view repo
PowerShell

RAM-Management-Utility

A Windows memory management utility that frees memory safely without destabilising the system.

→ view repo
// 04. bug bounty

Bug bounty research

Active researcher on HackerOne and YesWeHack since 2026, focused on mobile apps, API authorization and client software. Every report goes through self-triage before submission, and findings stay private until each program allows disclosure.

Mobile

Android App Security

Exported activities, ContentProviders and FileProviders, intent and deep-link handling, network-security-config and certificate trust, and OAuth client secrets shipped in APKs. Static analysis with jadx, dynamic analysis with Frida, Burp and logcat on a rooted device.

API

Authorization & API Audits

Systematic IDOR/BOLA and mass-assignment testing across two-account setups, including a full audit of a 311-endpoint OpenAPI specification. Also SSRF hunting with Burp Collaborator, stored XSS and postMessage origin validation.

Reverse Engineering

Desktop Client Analysis

Static analysis of a protected Windows game client in scope for a HackerOne program: recovered 184k strings and 33,644 RTTI class records despite an encrypted .text section, mapped its engine stack and API surface, and built a Python harness to fuzz its custom URL-protocol handler.

// 05. reports

Reports & assessments

Offensive Security

ADM Blackbox Penetration Test

Led a blackbox penetration test end to end: reconnaissance, vulnerability identification, exploitation and a full findings report with remediation guidance.

→ read report (PDF)
Offensive Security

Ethical Hacking: HTCS6705

A paper on ethical hacking principles, attacker tactics and hands-on technique, connecting theory to practical exploitation.

→ read paper (PDF)
Defensive Security

Securing Digital Environments

A cybersecurity project report on hardening and protecting digital environments against modern threats.

→ read report (PDF)
GRC

Risk Assessment: Datacom

From the Datacom cybersecurity job simulation: a structured risk assessment that identifies assets, threats and vulnerabilities, rates likelihood and impact, and maps controls.

→ view workbook (XLSX)
Human Risk

Security Awareness: Mastercard

From the Mastercard job simulation: a security awareness programme for HR and Marketing, the teams most exposed to phishing and social engineering.

→ view deck (PPTX)
Data & ML

Data Analysis & Machine Learning

Data analysis and machine learning in Python and Jupyter Notebook: cleaning, exploration, modelling and evaluation.

→ read report (PDF)
// 06. experience

Where I've worked

Current focus

Cybersecurity Engineer: Incident Response & Threat Hunting

Hunting threats, responding to incidents and driving remediation, backed by self-built recon and threat intelligence tooling.

Job simulationMar 2024

Mastercard: Security Awareness Analyst (Forage)

  • Worked as an analyst on Mastercard's Security Awareness Team
  • Assessed and improved cybersecurity protocols, and designed awareness training for high-risk teams
Job simulationFeb 2024

Datacom: Cybersecurity Analyst (Forage)

  • Investigated a cyberattack and wrote a detailed incident report with recommendations
  • Ran risk assessments to find client vulnerabilities and recommend mitigations
InternshipAug 2022 – Jun 2023 · Auckland

Spark New Zealand: Cyber Defense Operations (CDO) Intern

  • Monitored network traffic and security logs, triaged alerts, ruled out false positives, and escalated confirmed incidents to senior analysts with documented evidence
  • Investigated potential incidents: scoped affected assets, gathered log evidence and recommended containment
  • Helped build incident response plans and playbooks for likely breach scenarios
  • Ran vulnerability assessments on company assets and tracked remediation with asset owners
  • Educated staff on security best practice and policy

→ internship report (PDF)

InternshipMay 2021 – Aug 2021

Theta: Full-stack Web Development Intern (Mixiply project)

  • Built and maintained secure web applications following secure-coding and data-protection practice
  • Ran regular security assessments and audits of the applications
  • Implemented encryption and authentication mechanisms to protect user data
Volunteer

High School: Network & Policy Security

Helped secure the school network and shape its security policies. This was my first hands-on defensive work in a live environment.

Origin

Home Lab

Dual-booted my first machine at 10 and built a personal network lab to experiment, break things and learn how they really work.

// 07. writing

Writing

Security analysis and practical guides, published on Medium as @CyberAmir, where I write from hands-on experience in ethical hacking, penetration testing and threat detection.

Security ResearchFeb 2026

The Unwatchable Student: Why Client-Side Proctoring Can't Be Trusted

An ethical proof of concept against a real proctoring SDK, supervisor.js. I reverse-engineered its media capture, its telemetry and event-scoring model, and its anti-tamper controls (devtools detection, keyboard lockdown). Then I showed why MV3 extension injection timing and the limits of CSP mean a client the user controls can never be a trust anchor. It ends with defensive recommendations for vendors and institutions, and deliberately leaves out any reproducible bypass. 11 min read.

→ read on Medium
Incident ResponseSep 2025

That Viral "Zoom Hack" Isn't a Hack: It's a Social Engineering Scam

This breaks down the attacker's playbook: posing as a journalist or podcast host, renaming themselves "Zoom", and asking for remote control to drop a RAT or infostealer. It walks through a real case where the "Goopdate" RAT drained more than $100k from crypto wallets in minutes, separates real risks from the BIOS-takeover myth, and ends with a five-step recovery playbook that starts with isolating the machine. 7 min read.

→ read on Medium
LinuxMar 2025

How to Install Arch Linux: A Detailed Guide for Beginners

A beginner's walkthrough of a UEFI install: GPT partitioning with cgdisk, mirror ranking and pacstrap, a locale, user and sudo setup, the systemd-boot loader, NetworkManager, NVIDIA drivers and KDE Plasma. Every step includes the commands. 3 min read.

→ read on Medium
// 08. showcase

Project showcase

// 09. contact

Let's work together

Open to incident response, threat hunting and security engineering roles in Melbourne and across Australia, whether on-site, hybrid or remote, as well as pentest engagements and collaboration. Demos of private tooling are available on request.