Profile

Cybersecurity Engineer with end-to-end experience designing, deploying, and operating security infrastructure for real production environments. Proven ability to build security operations from the ground up, reduce attack surface, and translate security frameworks into practical controls. Strong focus on detection engineering, incident response, and measurable risk reduction.

Education

Abu Dhabi University

Bachelor of Science (BSc) Cybersecurity Engineering
Jan 2021 – Expected June 2026 | Abu Dhabi, UAE
Work Experience

Freelance Cybersecurity Engineer

Confidential
Jun 2024 – Present | Remote
  • •Designed and operated a centralised SIEM using Wazuh for real-time log correlation, alerting, and threat detection, improving detection accuracy by ~45%.
  • •Architected and deployed Zero Trust remote access, replacing legacy exposure points and reducing successful brute-force attempts from near-total compromise to <5%.
  • •Led full web attack surface reduction by migrating enterprise assets to Cloudflare, implementing WAF rules, HSTS, and hardening controls, eliminating observed SQLi and XSS vectors.
  • •Implemented unified endpoint management (UEM) to automate system hardening, monitor endpoint health, and enforce baseline security policies across Windows and Linux devices.
  • •Designed and tested a redundant backup and disaster recovery architecture using NAS with automated off-site synchronisation, achieving 100% recovery success during drills.
  • •Authored organisational security policies, maintained a live risk register covering 30+ critical threats, and drove ~95% alignment with NIST-based security frameworks.

    • Cybersecurity Intern

    Bold Investment
    Jan 2025 – Feb 2025 | Abu Dhabi
  • •Conducted vulnerability assessments and penetration testing using OpenVAS, Nessus, Nmap, Nikto, Metasploit, Hydra, and Burp Suite.
  • •Configured and tested IDS/​IPS solutions (Snort, Suricata) for network-based threat detection.
  • •Documented findings with remediation guidance aligned to OWASP Top 10 and NIST principles.
    • Certificates
    Project Management for Cybersecurity Professionals: EC Council|Industrial Cybersecurity Essentials: Cisco|Practical Ethical Hacker Course: TCM Security|CyberOps Associate: Cisco|CCNAv7 Intro to Networks: Cisco Netacad|Google Cybersecurity Professional: Google|Cybersecurity Engineer: TryHackMe|N|DE Network Defense Essentials: EC Council|Linux Fundamentals: TCM Security|Pentesting Foundation: EC Council|Intro to Cybersecurity:⁠ Cisco NetAcad.
    Skills
    Security Engineering & Operations — SIEM (Wazuh, Splunk), Log Analysis, Incident Response & Triage, Detection Engineering, Sysmon, Security Architecture|Email, Endpoint & Identity Security — Phishing Analysis, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, Endpoint Hardening (Windows, Linux), Active Directory, Group Policy|Network & Infrastructure Security — Firewalls (Fortinet, pfSense), IDS/IPS (Suricata, Snort), VPN (WireGuard), Cloudflare (WAF, HSTS)|Automation, Platforms & Labs — Python, PowerShell, Docker, Proxmox, NAS, Security Automation Pipelines|Vulnerability, Risk & Governance — Vulnerability Assessment (OpenVAS, Nikto), Risk Management, Risk Register, Asset Classification, OWASP Top 10, NIST CSF, ISO 27001
    Projects

    Ethical Hacking Home Lab — Kali Linux, Metasploitable

    Ameen Siddiqui
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