Muhammad Obaid
ur Rehman

About

I'm an IT support and systems professional who likes the practical side of technology: getting people unblocked, keeping infrastructure healthy, and closing the gaps attackers look for.

From 2022 to 2025 I was the IT Head at The Laboratory in Karachi, keeping the organization's systems running. Alongside that, I looked after a live WordPress site for a client in the US and provided technical support for the Plug community on Discord.

In 2025 I moved to Berlin for an MSc in Cyber Security at Arden University. There I'm a Student Representative and one of the pioneers behind the Arden Computing Club Berlin, which runs tech workshops, trips and cultural festivals for students. My dissertation tested how machine-learning deepfake detectors fail in the real world. Most of my coursework is hands-on lab work: penetration testing, digital forensics, Zero Trust design and hybrid cloud automation.

Long term, I want to help fight online crime, especially the blackmail and exploitation that targets women and children.

Experience

1. 2022 — 2025

   IT Head · The Laboratory

   Kept the organization's IT systems and equipment running. Provided IT support and troubleshooting for hardware, software and network issues, administered user systems and access, and maintained backups and updates.

   • Windows
   • IT support
   • Networking
   • Backups

2. 2023 — 2025

   Freelance Website Administrator · TheYogaNomads (US, remote)

   Kept a live WordPress site fast, updated and online. Handled plugins, backend administration and basic SEO, and kept a non-technical client informed while coordinating improvements.

   • WordPress
   • Remote support
   • SEO

3. 2025 — Now

   Student Representative & Founding Member, Computing Club · Arden University Berlin

   Represent students in academic and administrative discussions, including programme validation. One of the pioneers behind the Arden Computing Club Berlin, organizing tech workshops, day trips and cultural festivals, and helped run the Berlin graduation ceremony 2026.

   • Leadership
   • Community building
   • Event planning

4. 2018 — Now

   Community & Technical Support Volunteer · Plug, Innovative Developers Ltd (UK, remote)

   Technical support, moderation and onboarding for the Plug community. Designed and administer its official Discord server.

   • Discord
   • Technical support
   • Moderation

Projects

1. Security

   Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Test

   A full PTES-style engagement against a simulated environment: recon, service enumeration and web scanning, ending in a findings report with remediation steps.

   • PTES
   • Nmap
   • Nikto
   • Gobuster

2. Security

   SQL Injection Assessment of a Payroll App

   Validated SQL injection following the OWASP WSTG and demonstrated authentication bypass. Classified the risk with STRIDE and the CIA triad, and recommended parameterized queries and least privilege.

   • OWASP WSTG
   • sqlmap
   • STRIDE

3. Forensics

   Insider Threat & Data Leak Investigation

   Preserved disk-image evidence with MD5/SHA-1 hashing, reconstructed user activity from Windows artefacts, and delivered a structured forensic report.

   • FTK Imager
   • Hashing
   • Windows artefacts

4. Architecture

   Zero Trust Cloud Security Architecture

   Designed layered security for a European streaming company aligned to Zero Trust and the NIST CSF: segmentation, NGFW, IDS/IPS, SIEM and WAF, plus IAM with Azure AD, MFA, RBAC and PAM.

   • Zero Trust
   • NIST CSF
   • Azure AD
   • SIEM

5. Cloud

   Hybrid Cloud with Proxmox, Kubernetes & Ansible

   Proxmox VMs (Ansible control node, Windows Server 2019, Apache container), a three-replica Kubernetes app, and two load-balanced Oracle Cloud instances, all managed with Ansible.

   • Proxmox
   • Kubernetes
   • Ansible
   • OCI

6. Networking

   Secure Multi-Site Enterprise Network

   A head office, branch and remote-access topology with per-department VLANs and a DMZ, least-privilege ACLs, hardened switching and SSH-only management.

   • Cisco
   • VLANs
   • ACLs
   • SSH

7. Systems

   Windows Server, Active Directory & Exchange 2019

   Built a domain with users, groups and Group Policy, deployed Exchange 2019 with departmental databases, retention policies and archiving, and set up scheduled backups and recovery.

   • AD
   • GPO
   • Exchange
   • SQL Server

Skills

Security

Penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, SIEM, digital forensics, OWASP, NIST CSF, Zero Trust, adversarial ML

Systems

Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, Exchange, SQL Server, Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu, Fedora), Microsoft 365

Cloud & automation

AWS, Azure, Oracle Cloud, Proxmox, Kubernetes, Ansible, Python, PyTorch

Networking

TCP/IP, DNS, VLANs, ACLs, routing & switching, firewalls & VPN

Languages

English (C2), German (A1, learning)

Certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
• Scrum Fundamentals Certified

Training & coursework

• Alnafi EduQual Cloud & Cyber Security Diploma (coursework)
• Alnafi EduQual AIOps Diploma (coursework)
• AWS Solutions Architect Associate (coursework)
• Ethical Hacking course (WSCubeTech)

Contact

I'm looking for IT Support, System Administration and Cybersecurity roles in Germany. If you think I'd be a good fit, I'd love to hear from you. LinkedIn is the quickest way to reach me.