ZEINA AL ABASSI
Riyadh,Saudi Arabia
Summary
Cybersecurity & Risk Analyst experienced in supporting diverse organizations across security operations, incident response, and vulnerability management. Achieved significant operational efficiency by automating processes, notably reducing security reporting preparation time by 67%. Focused on delivering actionable insights through thorough risk assessments and effective communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Overview
1
1
Certification
4
4
years of professional experience
Work History
SOC Analyst Level 1 — Cybersecurity, Risk & Client Advisory
Alliant Cybersecurity
Houston, USA
01.2023 - 08.2026
- Monitor, triage, and investigate high-volume security alerts across 35+ client environments within a 24/7 Security Operations Center using Securonix SIEM, CrowdStrike Falcon, and Qualys.
- Analyze security logs, alerts, and events to differentiate false positives from genuine threats, determine severity and business risk, and escalate validated incidents to clients and internal security teams.
- Investigate and respond to cybersecurity incidents including ransomware, business/email compromise, and MFA account takeovers, supporting containment, remediation, account recovery, and prevention efforts.
- Conducted proactive threat hunting and vulnerability analysis to identify indicators of compromise, suspicious activity, and potential threats, enhancing overall security posture across client environments.
- Support Microsoft security environments including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Defender, MFA, email security gateways, and related security configurations, working with clients through issue resolution.
- Collaborate across SOC, IT, threat intelligence, and GRC teams to investigate security issues, coordinate remediation activities, and improve clients’ overall security posture.
- Prepare weekly and monthly cybersecurity reports covering alert trends, severity levels, user status, log-source coverage, vulnerability posture, asset risk, and remediation priorities.
- Present monthly cybersecurity reports directly to client stakeholders, explain technical findings and security trends, answer questions, and recommend prioritized remediation strategies.
- Develop detailed incident reports documenting incident cause, affected systems or accounts, remediation activities, and recommendations to reduce recurrence.
- Supported cybersecurity risk assessments through client discovery sessions and control reviews, identifying security gaps and documenting tailored remediation strategies for client environments.
- Prepare risk assessment documentation aligned with CIS Controls v8, including maturity observations, gap analysis, and tailored remediation recommendations.
- Support NIST and CMMC cybersecurity framework initiatives and assist with development of security policies, procedures, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
- Contribute to SOP development across access control, asset management/CMDB, identification and authentication, media sanitization, physical protection, public information/content posting, system and communications protection, and system and information integrity.
- Present cybersecurity assessment findings, identified gaps, and recommended remediation activities to clients in a clear, advisory-focused format.
- Translate technical security findings and vulnerability information into actionable recommendations understandable by both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Reduced monthly security reporting preparation time by approximately 67% (6 hours to 2 hours) by developing and implementing automation/macros while maintaining reporting quality and SLA expectations.
- Consistently handled the highest volume of security alerts among team members while maintaining SLA compliance and timely incident escalation.
- Developed and delivered internal cyber-threat presentations to educate SOC team members on emerging security threats, improving incident response capabilities and fostering a culture of security awareness.
Education
Bachelor of Business Administration - Cyber Security
The University of Texas at San Antonio — Alvarez College of Business
San Antonio, Texas, USASkills
- Security Operations Center (SOC)
- SIEM analysis
- Incident Response & Management
- Incident Response Automation
- Threat Hunting & Detection
- Vulnerability Management
- Vulnerability Analysis
- Remediation planning
- Remediation Tracking
- Risk assessment
- Risk Assessments
- Asset Risk
- GRC management
- CIS Controls v8
- NIST/CMMC support
- Security Monitoring
- Alert Triage
- Log Analysis
- Microsoft 365 & Azure Security
- Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft Defender
- CrowdStrike Falcon
- Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
- Qualys Vulnerability Management
- Email Threat Protection
- MFA
- Client Security Briefing
- Incident reporting
- Incident Management Procedures
- Microsoft Excel
- Securonix
Certification
- CompTIA IT Fundamentals+ (ITF+) — Certified
- Snypr Certified Security Analyst 300
- Qualys Vulnerability Management Foundation
- CrowdStrike Fundamentals: Falcon Platform Training
- Fortinet NSE — Network Security Associate
- Google Crash Course on Python
Target Roles
- Cybersecurity Analyst
- Cyber Risk Analyst
- GRC Analyst
- Information Security Analyst
- Cybersecurity Consultant
- Security Advisory Analyst
- Vulnerability Management Analyst
- SOC Analyst
- Information Security Governance Analyst
Personal Information
Title: Cybersecurity & Risk Analyst
Languages
- Arabic, Native
- English, Fluent
Core Expertise
- Cybersecurity Analyst
- Cyber Risk Analyst
- GRC Analyst
- Information Security Analyst
- Cybersecurity Consultant
- Security Advisory Analyst
- Vulnerability Management Analyst
- SOC Analyst
- Information Security Governance Analyst
Selected Achievements
- Cybersecurity Analyst
- Cyber Risk Analyst
- GRC Analyst
- Information Security Analyst
- Cybersecurity Consultant
- Security Advisory Analyst
- Vulnerability Management Analyst
- SOC Analyst
- Information Security Governance Analyst
Timeline
SOC Analyst Level 1 — Cybersecurity, Risk & Client Advisory
Alliant Cybersecurity
01.2023 - 08.2026
Bachelor of Business Administration - Cyber Security
The University of Texas at San Antonio — Alvarez College of Business