The Information Superhighway Special
Shakel
Ahmed
Who is Shak?
I've spent over twenty years on the front lines of cybersecurity, helping organisations answer one critical question: how well would your technology and security measures stand up to a real cyber attack? For the last decade I've worked as a solutions engineer, helping leadership teams see where they really stand and what to improve first. The interests that keep me busy: AI security, security testing, cloud security, cyber resilience and how attackers actually operate. Home is Oxfordshire, England.
The rest of my time goes into sharing what I've learned: mentoring, speaking at conferences, and building CyberDesserts, a skills and knowledge hub for cybersecurity practitioners and students: practical, honest guidance on roles, skills and certifications, minus the hype. The CyberDesserts blog is where most of that gets written down.
The longer version of how I got here is on the about page.
What I'm up to
C:\SHAK> TYPE NOW.TXT
- DAY JOB
- Cybersecurity solutions engineering, with AI security high on the list
- BUILDING
- CYBERDESSERTS.COM, plus browser-based hands-on labs anyone can launch in one click
- WRITING
- The CyberDesserts blog, practical security education for practitioners and students
- MENTORING
- Always open. The focus is building portfolio evidence, see what I'm mentoring on
- SIDE QUEST
- The King of Cybersecurity, my satirical security handbook: ten royal decrees of security hygiene, told as dark-fantasy comedy
- OFF DUTY
- FPV flying at the weekend, the gym, and table tennis (getting better all the time)
C:\SHAK> DIR
C:\SHAK>