01. About Me
I build, monitor, and troubleshoot systems. My experience ranges from Tier 1 IT support to hands-on cybersecurity labs involving SIEM, IDS, threat intelligence, and network security tools.
DEC graduate in Computer Security & Networking, based in Montreal, fluent in French & English, and currently open to SOC analyst and IT support roles.
02. Education
DEC — Computer Security & Networking
Collège de Bois-de-Boulogne · Montreal, QC
Graduated 2025
- ▹Core focus: network security, ethical hacking, incident response, and system administration.
- ▹Ran lab environments with Suricata, Splunk, pfSense, and ELK Stack throughout the program.
- ▹Coursework in cryptography, vulnerability assessment, Windows/Linux hardening, and CCNA-level networking.
Cycle Préparatoire Intégré, Sciences de l'Ingénieur
ENSA Berrechid · Université Hassan 1er · Morocco
2019 – 2021
- ▹Core curriculum: advanced mathematics (algebra, analysis, probability), physics, electronics, mechanics, and thermodynamics across 4 semesters.
- ▹Computer science track: algorithmics, C programming, computer architecture, and applied IT tools.
- ▹Completed the competitive 2-year integrated preparatory cycle, the foundational stage of ENSA Berrechid's 5-year engineering program. Relocated to Montreal in 2021 to pursue specialized studies in applied cybersecurity.
Baccalauréat, Sciences Physiques
Groupe Scolaire RIAD · Casablanca, Morocco
2019
- ▹Sciences Physiques track, Option Français. Equivalent to the Quebec Diplôme d'études secondaires (DES).
- ▹Rigorous STEM-focused curriculum covering mathematics, physics, chemistry, and earth sciences with bilingual instruction in French and English.
- ▹Awarded Félicitations du Jury by the examination board.
03. Where I've Worked
IT Support Technician @ Alorica
July 2025 – December 2025 · Montreal, QC
- ▹Provided Tier 1/2 IT support for Alorica's internal workforce — diagnosing Windows 10/11, Office 365, VPN, and network peripheral issues across a bilingual (FR/EN) environment at a pace of 25–35 tickets per day.
- ▹Documented every incident with structured CRM notes to ensure clean handoff and audit trail for L2/L3 escalations.
- ▹Maintained SLA compliance under high ticket volume — same bilingual communication skills used daily here as in the lab environment.
04. Some Things I've Built
Python framework querying AbuseIPDB, VirusTotal, and AlienVault OTX to automate IOC enrichment and risk scoring. Generates structured JSON threat reports for SOC workflows — cutting manual lookup time from minutes per IOC to seconds, with automated severity classification across all three feeds.
Full Security Operations Center on a Raspberry Pi. Suricata IDS with the Emerging Threats ruleset feeds into Splunk SIEM for real-time detection, alert correlation, and custom dashboard visualization. Rule tuning — suppressing noisy scanner signatures and home-network baseline traffic — dropped alert volume from ~120 to ~72 daily alerts over a 3-week cycle (~40% reduction). This lab produced a real documented detection: a PowerShell-based fileless attack caught and contained in 42 minutes — see the IR writeup below.
A live detection from my Mini-SOC: Wazuh flagged a Base64-encoded PowerShell command (severity 12) on WIN-LAB-01 attempting a remote stage-2 payload download and scheduled-task persistence. I cross-correlated Wazuh HIDS alerts, Suricata network events, and Sysmon endpoint logs in Splunk, then enriched the C2 IP 185.220.101.42 via my Threat Intel Bot — 100/100 AbuseIPDB, 8/92 VirusTotal flags. Detection to containment: 42 minutes. Host isolated, process terminated, malicious scheduled task removed, forensic artifacts preserved.
Pi-hole DNS sinkhole blocking ads and malicious domains across the entire home network. Custom blocklists, regex filtering, and whitelist management. Blocks ~15,000 domains/day with full query logging and per-client visibility.
Three-VLAN segmented lab (LAN / OPT1 / OPT2) with full LAN/WAN separation, per-segment DHCP and DNS, explicit inter-VLAN firewall rules, NAT, and OpenVPN client + site-to-site VPN. Suricata running in inline IDS mode across all interfaces — actively caught and logged intrusion attempts during red team exercises. Default-deny between segments, tuned ruleset, forensic alert review.
05. Technical Skills
Want to see more?
06. Certifications

CompTIA CySA+
Valid 2025–2028

CompTIA Security+
Valid 2025–2028

Cisco CCNA ITN

Cisco CCNA SRWE

Cisco CCNA ENSA

Cisco Network Defense

Microsoft AZ-900

Microsoft SC-900
06.1 Language Certifications
TCF Canada
Test de Connaissance du Français
C1 / B2 — French
CELPIP-G
Canadian English Proficiency
CLB 9 — English
07. What's Next?
Get In Touch
Actively seeking SOC Analyst, IT Support, and Security Operations roles in Montreal. I typically respond within 24 hours.
Or directly: abdelkrim.zouaki.ti@gmail.com