Cybersecurity Professional

Building walls.
Breaking them
to build better.

Blue team defender with a red team curiosity. I don't just detect threats — I investigate, respond, remediate, hunt, and harden. From incident response to forensics to adversary emulation, I cover the full spectrum of cyber defense.

abhishek@defender ~ %
$ whoami Abhishek Zala // defender by trade   $ cat mission.conf "Think like an attacker. Defend like it's personal."   $ nmap --capabilities # --- Blue Team --- Incident Response | Threat Hunting SIEM/EDR/XDR | Digital Forensics Hardening | Vuln Management # --- Red Team (learning) --- Pentesting | Exploitation | OSINT   $ echo "Attack surface: minimized."
800+
Monthly Incidents Resolved
95%
Resolution Rate
30%
Faster SLA Response
70+
Daily Tickets Managed

Defend everything.
Assume nothing.

I'm a cybersecurity professional with a computer engineering foundation and a hands-on approach to defense. My work spans the full blue team lifecycle — from real-time incident triage and threat hunting, to root cause analysis, digital forensics, vulnerability management, and building the playbooks that keep operations battle-ready.

But defense alone isn't enough. I actively study offensive techniques — penetration testing, exploitation, and adversary tradecraft — because understanding how systems break is the fastest way to make them unbreakable. I believe the best defenders think like attackers, and I bring that mindset to everything I do.

Certified with CompTIA Security+ and GIAC GCIH, and experienced across SIEM, EDR/XDR, cloud, and forensics platforms. Based in Toronto, always learning, always hunting.

🛡️
Incident Response
Full-cycle IR from detection through containment, eradication & recovery
🔍
Threat Hunting
Proactive hypothesis-driven hunts using MITRE ATT&CK
🧪
Digital Forensics
Disk imaging, memory acquisition, artifact analysis & evidence handling
⚔️
Red Team Skills
Pentesting, exploitation & adversary emulation for better defense

Where I've made an impact.

Cybersecurity Analyst March 2023 – Present
Toronto, ON
Incident ResponseThreat HuntingSIEM / EDR / XDRForensicsVuln Management
  • Led end-to-end incident response for malware infections, unauthorized access, and data breach indicators — from detection to remediation
  • Resolved 800+ security incidents monthly across SIEM, EDR, and XDR platforms with a 95% resolution rate
  • Conducted proactive threat hunts and implemented IOCs across detection platforms, reducing mean time to detect
  • Performed root cause analysis and impact assessments to determine blast radius and drive remediation strategy
  • Authored and maintained incident response playbooks, standardizing operations across the security team
  • Supported vulnerability scanning, patch management, and system hardening initiatives
  • Generated monthly security posture reports with trend analysis and actionable improvement recommendations
  • Improved average SLA response time by 30% through process optimization and triage refinement

Tools & technologies I work with.

🔒
SOC & Security Tools
IBM QRadarMicrosoft SentinelSplunkSentinelOneCrowdStrikeMS DefenderTrellixFortigateMerakiNexpose
⚔️
Offensive & Forensics
NmapWiresharkMetasploitBurp SuiteNetcatFTK ImagerAutopsy
💻
Platforms & OS
Windows ServerLinuxUnixmacOSActive DirectoryOffice 365
☁️
Cloud & Virtualization
Microsoft AzureAWSGoogle CloudVMware ESXiVirtualBoxDocker
🧠
Frameworks & Concepts
MITRE ATT&CKOWASP Top 10IDS / IPSOSINTThreat HuntingIncident ResponseSIEM

Hands-on security work.

Offensive Security
Android Application Penetration Testing

Performed comprehensive penetration testing on an Android application including reconnaissance, static/dynamic analysis, and API testing. Assessed APK security against OWASP Mobile Top 10, documented vulnerabilities, and initiated compliance remediation.

apktoolMobSFBurp SuiteOWASP
Exploitation & Hardening
Windows System Exploitation

Analyzed Windows file systems, UAC, and registry. Set up Active Directory Domain Services, managed users, group policies, and authentication. Used Metasploit to assess vulnerabilities and exploit system misconfigurations — then hardened the environment against the same attack vectors.

MetasploitActive DirectoryWindows ServerGPO
Digital Forensics
Data Acquisition & Duplication

Captured forensic images in E01 and DD formats for Linux-based analysis. Performed volatile memory acquisition using LiME, fmem, and Netcat. Analyzed NTFS file systems and validated file signatures through hex analysis to ensure evidence integrity.

FTK ImagerLiMENetcatDDHex Analysis

Validated expertise.

🔐
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA
🛡️
GIAC Certified Incident Handler
GCIH — SANS / GIAC

Academic foundation.

May 2022 – Dec 2022
Cyber Security
Centennial College
Toronto, ON
Aug 2021 – April 2022
Project Management — IT
Seneca College
Toronto, ON
Jun 2015 – May 2019
Computer Engineering
Gujarat Technological University
Ahmedabad, GUJ

Let's work together.

Open to opportunities across cybersecurity — incident response, threat hunting, security engineering, forensics, or purple team operations.