Mohamed Kurdi, Senior Security Advisor

Mohamed Kurdi

Senior Security Advisor

National Bank of Canada

Location
Canada
Education
Master's degree, Information Systems Security
Experience
20 years, 3 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :20 years, 3 Months

Senior Security Advisor at National Bank of Canada
  • Canada - Quebec
  • My current job since December 2014

* Act as integrator of security services and coordinator of security activities for various IT initiatives.
* Participate with Enterprise Architecture group in defining strategic directions of IT operations.
* Conduct static and dynamic code analysis and network penetration testing for new IT projects
* Prepare RFPs and security controls and evaluate security compliance of software and cloud vendors.
* Perform risk and threat analysis based on data classification and business impact analysis and recommend security controls in line with security policies and applicable regulations.
* Advise business and IT units on application, information, operational and cloud security.
* Produce hardening manuals for new technologies and maintain security frameworks with partners.

Solutions Architect / IT Security Specialist at Uniban Canada Inc.
  • Canada - Quebec
  • June 2011 to November 2014

* Planned and performed regular security audits to evaluate the security controls in the IT environment and assessed and mitigated technical risks.
* Conducted white-box penetration tests on web applications, web and SQL servers using Metasploit and Backtrack security suites to detect and report vulnerabilities.
* Analyzed and monitored network traffic and system logs using Fortigate UTM and Splunk.
* Led the IT team in a full-scale virtualization of a medium-sized physical IT infrastructure leveraging VMware vMotion for High Availability, and vShield for Data Loss Prevention.
* Implemented and managed Microsoft System Center for asset monitoring and management, and Team Foundation server for code release and change control management.
* Developed and maintained a BCP/DRP plan using ISO/IEC-27031 and ISO/IEC 24762 frameworks.
* Set up a disaster recovery hot site in Waterloo for live replication of mission-critical virtual machines.
* Set up redundant Domain Controller and DNS servers, and configure Active Directory services.
* Deployed PKI on Windows Server 2008 R2 and established a root CA for internal digital certificates distribution and management.
* Applied OWASP standards in designing and developing an identity management and access control web services solution using WS-Security over SSL.
* Managed a team of developers in reverse engineering and refactoring legacy ASP.NET web services into secure WCF services using Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) for Agile.

Senior Analyst / Technical Lead at Total System Services Inc.
  • United Arab Emirates - Dubai
  • September 2007 to May 2011

* Led the implementation of several data conversion projects for multinational clients while ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive cardholder data per the PCI DSS standard.
* Developed and maintained back-end code using Oracle PL/SQL in compliance with the latest PCI DSS requirements.
* Participated in the periodic evaluation and certification of the credit card management system to ensure compliance with the latest PCI DSS mandates.
* Provided on-site incident response for processing clients in the UK-based data center during development, data migration, and implementation phases of the SDLC.
* Enabled multi-tenancy for secure data segregation on Oracle databases deployed in data processing environments by employing various partitioning strategies (Range, Hash, List).
* Designed and implemented secure SOA-based payment processing services and a web-based management interface using ASP.NET web services and MVC frameworks.
* Promoted concepts of abstraction and layering by following a multi-tiered architecture in the design and implementation of the card management system.
* Participated in the development of role-based access control system to enforce need-to-know and least-privilege principles over access to cardholder data.
* Used Oracle wrapping utility to encrypt stored procedures and PL/SQL source code prior to deployment to client database servers.
* Implemented technical controls to protect cardholder data both in motion (SSL over networks) and at rest (data masking, encryption, archiving and disposal in storage).
* Secured sensitive database information by encrypting connection strings stored in configuration files on web servers.
* Conducted on-site training on the secure operation of the card management system.

Senior Developer / Team Leader at Clifton Myers Enterprises Inc.
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • September 2006 to August 2007

* Managed a multinational agile team across multiple time zones, and participated in code reviews and change control management in line with the organizational security policies.
* Followed the secure SDLC in reviewing code deliverables submitted by team members and verified the successful unit and integration testing prior to committing to the version control system.
* Implemented client-side and server-side input validation in various multi-tier web applications to protect against common web attacks (XSS, CSRF, SQL injection, and session hijacking)
* Participated in the development of a VoIP telephony and a real estate e-commerce web applications using Object-Oriented Programming concepts (encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism).
* Participated in the design and development of a role-based access control solution that implements security groups and users and provides granular access rights control.

Senior Software Developer at Various software firms
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • February 2004 to August 2006

* Designed and developed a web-based license management system using ASP.NET Forms Authentication and SSL which allows customers to securely authenticate and manage their licenses.
* Created and deployed strong-named .NET assemblies using a public/private key pair to promote trusted development and application environments.
* Applied the industry’s best practices, and used open source .NET libraries and MS Application Blocks to leverage time-tested and community-reviewed secure components.
* Planned, analyzed and designed a telephone call management system (CARLA), and a Hospital Management System (HMS) using Visual Studio .NET and SQL Server 2000.
* Led a technical support team in implementing the accounting interface with various ERP systems.

Education

Master's degree, Information Systems Security
  • at Concordia University
  • September 2013
Bachelor's degree, Computer Sciences
  • at American University of Science and Technology
  • July 2004

Specialties & Skills

PCI DSS
Vulnerability Assessment
IT Security
Cyber Security
Information Security Management
Risk Analysis
Project management
Team Leadership
Vulnerability Assessment
Penetration Testing
IT Security Auditing

Languages

Arabic
Expert
English
Expert
French
Expert

Memberships

PMI
  • Member
  • November 2010

Training and Certifications

Project Management Professional (PMP) (Certificate)
Date Attended:
January 2010
Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) (Certificate)
Date Attended:
January 2015
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) (Certificate)
Date Attended:
January 2016
Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) (Certificate)
Date Attended:
January 2014
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) (Certificate)
Date Attended:
January 2014