ABOUT ME

BACKGROUND

I'm Abdulla AlBassam, a final-year Cybersecurity and Networking student at Northumbria University, on track for a First Class Honours degree. I'm a recipient of the Saudi government's "Emdad" Scholarship (The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program), and I hold the Cisco CCNA and ISC2 CC certifications, with the eJPT currently in progress and the OSCP on my longer-term roadmap.

FINAL YEAR PROJECT

My final year computing project sits at the intersection of machine learning and cybersecurity. I am building an adversarially robust spam detection system using a fine-tuned DistilBERT transformer model deployed within a secure mail server pipeline, evaluating how intelligent systems can be hardened against adversarial manipulation. That project represents the kind of work I find most compelling, where deep technical problems meet real-world security threats.

EXPERIENCE

Across my degree, I've worked hands-on in penetration testing, defensive security, enterprise networking, digital forensics, and secure software architecture. I've conducted vulnerability assessments using Nmap and Burp Suite, implemented defensive controls with iptables and Snort, designed a multi-site enterprise WAN with MPLS VPN and IPSec in GNS3, carried out forensic investigations using Autopsy, FTK Imager, and Volatility 3, and built a secure REST API from scratch. Outside of university, I sharpen my offensive skills through CTF challenges on TryHackMe and Hack The Box, working through real-world exploitation and privilege escalation scenarios.

SWEATY

I also build things on the side. I founded Sweaty, a social platform for gamers that I designed and developed end-to-end using React Native. It features reviews, ratings, curated lists, a real-time social feed, AI-powered recommendations, and game-library importing. The app is currently in pilot testing before its full public release. Teaching myself full-stack mobile development, database design, and UI/UX principles from scratch to bring a product to life taught me invaluable skills in the realm of how business is conducted in the real world, and I look forward to further developing my computing skills, no matter the niche.

AI & COMMUNITY

I'm a member of the Claude Builder Club at Northumbria, where I work on agentic AI development and automation projects. I've also completed certifications from Anthropic and Google in AI prototyping and agentic development. Whether it's security, software, or AI, I'm drawn to building things that work, breaking things that don't, and understanding the theory behind both.

Contact me here, or find my Letterboxd :)