Cybersecurity graduate researcher specializing in risk governance, cloud security, and data protection policy.
My research examines the translation of cybersecurity frameworks into organizational decision-making, with an emphasis on closing the gap between policy and practice. This work sits at the intersection of risk management, cloud security, and data protection law, with a particular focus on regulatory development in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
I hold a Master of Science in Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations from Pennsylvania State University (4.00 GPA), following a Bachelor of Science in the same program. My experience includes two years as a teaching assistant and an internship at Kuwait Finance House, where I rotated across four functions: Security Operations Center (SOC), Security Architecture, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), and Penetration Testing. I also served as the inaugural College of Information Sciences and Technology representative on Penn State's Graduate Academic Integrity Committee.
My graduate coursework extends beyond technical security topics to project management, crisis and risk management, and organizational governance. As a result, I am equally interested in technical security roles, such as security operations or risk analysis, and in administrative or business-facing positions, including IT audit, governance, risk and compliance, and technology-enabled business operations.
Completed as the capstone requirement for the M.S. in Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations, under the advisement of Dr. Nicklaus A. Giacobe, College of Information Sciences and Technology.
This paper addresses a practical barrier in cybersecurity education: the cost and complexity of standing up hands-on lab environments. It first compares existing lab architectures, including virtual-machine, container, and cloud-hosted models, across ten evaluation criteria such as cost, setup complexity, and isolation. It then presents a working prototype that runs entirely inside a web browser, using the v86 JavaScript x86 emulator and custom Buildroot Linux images, with no server-side infrastructure required.
Publications examine how organizations select, adapt, and govern cybersecurity risk frameworks, primarily through systematic reviews and comparative framework analysis.
Reaching out about research, teaching, or a role? I read everything that lands here myself.