With over 15 years of Human Resources experience, I currently lead as the Head of HR at Independent Food Company, leveraging CIPD credentials and an MBA to deliver transformative HR strategies. My expertise spans talent management, performance systems, and employee engagement, helping shape an inclusive, high-performing workplace aligned with organizational goals.  

I oversee strategic HR initiatives, including enhancing recruitment processes, implementing innovative sourcing tools, and designing talent development programs. Passionate about data-driven solutions, I collaborate with leadership to drive sustainable growth, foster operational excellence, and empower teams to unlock their full potential.

Ahmad Al Cheikh Hassan

I'm a recruiter and I don't see the reason for cover letters. 
 
I find them archaic and pointless and should be left in the past. 
 
It's stressful enough being a job seekers these days. 
 
If a candidate is taking the time to apply to a role, this shows me they are interested. 
 
Plus, an applicants resume and work samples reflect their accomplishments and work history more than a cover letter ever could. 
 
 
#employeeexperience #talent #hiring #jobseekers #careers #hr #humanresources #culture #interviews #business #strategy #linkedin #linkedinconnections #aach

LinkedIn Top Voice | Head of HR | CIPD & MBA | 15 Years Driving HR Innovation | Strategic Leader in Human Capital Excellence, Business Integration & Organizational Transformation

30 INTERVIEWS and no one HIRED! Yet another friend telling me she can not find good talent. My thinking - If you interviewed 30 people and did not hire someone, then start looking in the mirror. The problem is recruiters and hiring managers are looking for the "perfect" candidate. NEWSFLASH!* - There is no "perfect" candidate. 

If you have someone with the right attitude and skill set to do the job, and they fit in with the team -- HIRE them. There are so many qualified individuals still job searching. Yet I see the same jobs being re-posted over and over again, being left vacant for months. Who took a chance on you? 

Who took a chance on you?

It's time to rethink what "good enough" really means.

The ideal candidate isn’t someone who checks every box on your list.

It's someone willing to learn, adapt, and bring energy to the team.

Holding out for perfection is costing you top talent.

You need to ask yourself: are you creating a process that catches real potential?

Or just filtering out anyone who isn't perfect on paper?

People are out there, ready to grow and make an impact.

You just have to be willing to give them a real shot.

#hr #humanresources #employeeexperience #talent #hiring #leaders #people #leadership #jobs #jobseekers #culture #culturematters #business #growth #branding #strategy #hrstrategy #interviews #tips #linkedin #linkedinconnections #aach

Dear hiring manager, 

A couple of suggestions:

1. Please post the salary in the job description. If you want to know my salary expectation, then you also should post the salary budget for the role.

2. Don’t ask me to repeat stuff that’s already in my resume or cover letter. You can assume that I have read the job ad carefully, so I should assume that you have read my application.

3. Please tell me who I am going to be working for and with. Yes, you are taking a chance on me, but I am taking a chance on you guys too.

4. Please tell me the outcome of the interview, even if I was unsuccessful. It takes less than a minute to write a polite rejection e-mail. Failing to do this is just plain rude.

5. For the third interview and onwards, you should pay my time at standard consulting rates including expenses, transportation etc. I won’t make a living by constant interviews.

Recruitment is a two-way street. Both parties need transparency and respect. Open communication builds trust and sets expectations right from the start.

Let’s make the hiring process fair and efficient for everyone involved. Prioritize clarity and mutual respect. It’s time for a change in the recruitment game. What's your take?

#hr #humanresources #employeeexperience #talent #hiring #leaders #people #leadership #jobs #jobseekers #culture #culturematters #business #growth #branding #strategy #hrstrategy #interviews #tips #linkedin #linkedinconnections

I’m #hiring for an open role. Know anyone who would be a good fit?

I’m #hiring for an open role ( Project Coordinator, FFE technical) Know anyone who would be a good fit?

Microsoft Security Architect | AI-Enabled Strategy | Building Global-Scale Microsoft Ecosystems

I don’t just build secure Microsoft environments, I design clarity and confidence for teams operating in high-stakes, high-trust environments.

From banks securing regulated workloads, to founders building SaaS platforms, to government teams navigating compliance, I’m trusted to architect Microsoft cloud infrastructures that stand up to scrutiny, scale, and stress.

My work lives at the intersection of:

•	Security that’s intentional, not reactive
•	Architecture that aligns with business, not just best practices
•	Compliance that enables innovation instead of restricting it

I specialize in Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Defender, Sentinel, and Purview and I’ve led cloud transformations involving multi-tenant migrations, zero-trust enforcement, and global security posture design.

My goal isn’t to "deliver a solution."
My goal is to be the architect they call when the margin for error is zero and trust is the real deliverable.

Rana Usman Ahmad

Email or Microsoft Teams, which one is more secure?

Email is still the #1 attack entry point.
 Phishing.
 Malicious attachments.
 Credential theft.

Teams feels safer but it isn’t immune.
• Files can be weaponized
 • Links can still deliver payloads
 • Trust is often assumed inside Teams

Security isn’t about choosing one over the other.
 It’s about protecting both communication channels.

That’s why message-level protection matters,
 and why Defender now extends visibility into Teams.

 Save this if your organization relies heavily on Teams
 Repost it if security conversations still focus only on email

Which platform do you think is more underestimated from a security perspective, Email or Teams?


#CyberSecurity #MicrosoftSecurity #CloudSecurity #ITSecurity #SecurityAwareness

Microsoft Security Architect | AI-Enabled Strategist | Building Global-Scale Microsoft Ecosystems

In one enterprise engagement I worked on,
 the compromise itself wasn’t the real issue.

I’ve seen identities get compromised before.
 That part is expected.

What changed everything was this:
The account had standing admin rights.

Not just-in-time.
 Not time-bound.
 Permanent access.

So when the identity was breached,
 the blast radius wasn’t limited.

The attacker didn’t need to escalate.
 They didn’t need to be loud.

They already had what they needed.

That experience reinforced something I strongly believe:
Security maturity is not about preventing compromise.

 It’s about controlling privilege before compromise happens.

Zero Trust isn’t a framework you deploy.
 It’s a discipline you enforce.

Now I’m curious to hear from others working in cloud security:

In real environments, what creates more risk?
A) Identity compromise
 B) Standing privileged access

Drop your thoughts below 

#DevSecOps #CASB #CSPM #ZeroTrustArchitecture #GCPSecurity #AzureSecurity #CloudSecurity #CloudGovernance #IdentitySecurity #MicrosoftSecurity

Most cybersecurity budgets are wasted.
Not because companies don’t spend enough.

Because they spend without ownership.

I’ve reviewed environments with:
• SIEM fully deployed
 • E5 licensing active
 • Endpoint protection enabled
 • MFA enforced

Yet no one owns:
• Weekly threat review
 • Identity hygiene
 • Alert tuning discipline
 • Executive reporting alignment

Security tools don’t fail.
Operating models do.

Buying more AI-powered security will not fix governance gaps.
It will just create faster noise.

Here’s the uncomfortable question:

If your security lead left tomorrow…
Would your security program continue running smoothly?

Or would it stall?

That’s how you measure maturity.

Security leaders, agree or disagree?

Everything looked secure.
 The breach was already in progress.

This happened in a real banking environment.

They had:
 • Defender for Endpoint
 • Defender for Identity
 • Sentinel
 • MFA
 • Licenses in place

On paper, everything was “fine”.
What was the issue

• Alerts were piling up silently
 • No one was actively reviewing dashboards
 • Security existed, but the process didn’t

It started small.
• A user logged in from a foreign IP
 • 2:14 AM
 • Outside the usual regional pattern

The SOC missed it.
 Our review process didn’t.

What we did
• Flagged and escalated off-region activity
 • Tracked lateral movement via Defender for Endpoint
 • Detected service account access through Defender for Identity
 • Correlated multi-device sign-ins in Sentinel

That’s when it became clear:
 An attacker was already inside, pivoting and escalating.

The outcome
• Breach stopped before reaching a core SQL server
 • Estimated exposure avoided: ~$500,000
 • No data loss
 • No regulatory fallout

The real lesson
Security tools don’t stop breaches.
 Architecture, visibility, and process do.

You don’t need more tools.
 You need clarity, coverage, and control.

What’s the most common security issue you keep seeing repeated across environments?

 Repost if you’ve seen environments like this
  Save it if you work in cloud or security architecture

#CyberSecurity #CloudSecurity #InformationSecurity

They had everything.

E5 licenses.
 MFA enabled.
 Dashboards connected.

They still almost had a financial breach.
This was a mid-sized banking environment.

They had:
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
 • Microsoft Defender for Identity
 • Microsoft Sentinel

All deployed.
But no one was looking at them properly.

Alerts were stacking up silently.

It started with something small.

A login at 2:14 AM
 From a foreign IP.

The SOC missed it.
Our weekly review process didn’t.

We had implemented one simple rule:
Tag and escalate any activity outside regional geolocation.

That’s when things escalated.
Defender for Endpoint showed lateral movement.

 Defender for Identity flagged abnormal service account access.
 Sentinel correlated logins from multiple devices.

An attacker was already inside the network.
Pivoting.
 Escalating.
 Attempting credential dumping.

One more week…
And they would have hit a core SQL server holding confidential banking data.

Estimated exposure?
~$500,000 in fines and reputational damage.

What stopped it?
Not the tools.
The architecture.

Here’s what we changed immediately:
• Tightened Conditional Access based on risk score
 • Automated endpoint isolation
 • Risky user blocking
 • Correlated escalation dashboards
 • Weekly triage reviews

That’s when the client understood:
Defender alone isn’t the solution.

The system around Defender is.

Security isn’t about more features.
It’s about clarity.
 Coverage.
 Control.

SOC teams, honest question:
Are you actively hunting signals across identity + endpoint + SIEM,
 or waiting for alerts to tell you something is wrong?

Security tools don’t fail.

Security ownership does.

I’ve walked into environments with:
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint deployed
 • Microsoft Defender for Identity connected
 • Microsoft Sentinel dashboards built
 • E5 licenses fully active

And leadership believed everything was secure.

But no one owned the review process.

Alerts stacking quietly.
 No structured triage.
 No signal correlation.
 No accountability.

Tools don’t protect organizations.
Discipline does.

SOC leaders, honest question:

Do you run a structured weekly review across identity + endpoint + SIEM?
 Or are you reacting only when something escalates?

Most breaches I investigate don’t start with malware.

They start with identity neglect.

Then:
In this carousel, I’ve outlined 5 identity gaps I repeatedly see inside enterprise environments, even in well-funded security programs.
Identity is no longer a support function.

It is the control plane of modern security.

Security leaders, which of these gaps have you encountered?

Most breaches I investigate don’t start with malware.

We’ll notice if something goes wrong.

That assumption has cost organizations millions.
Most cloud breaches don’t start with alarms.

 They start quietly.
• Normal user behavior
 • Slow lateral movement
 • No obvious alerts
 • Everything looks… fine

This PDF breaks down 7 cloud security assumptions that teams rely on every day, and why attackers love them.

Not more tools.
 Not more dashboards.

 Just clarity on where blind spots actually exist.

 Save this if you work in cloud or security
  Repost if these assumptions sound familiar

Which assumption do you see most often in real environments?


#CloudSecurity #CyberSecurity #MicrosoftSecurity #ZeroTrust #SecurityAwareness #CloudComputing

We’ll notice if something goes wrong.

80% of Fortune 500 companies are already using active AI agents.

Not in experiments.
 Not in labs.
 In production.

Across finance, manufacturing, retail, and software, AI agents are drafting proposals, analyzing financial data, triaging security alerts, and automating workflows at machine speed.

But here’s what I’ve noticed in enterprise environments:

Adoption is scaling faster than observability.

Many organizations cannot confidently answer:
• How many agents are running?
 • Who owns them?
 • What data do they access?
 • Which agents are unsanctioned?

AI agents act.
 They access data.
 They make decisions.

 And increasingly, they interact with other agents.

That changes the risk profile fundamentally.

Governance and security are not the same thing, and both are now business-critical.

In this PDF, I break down:
• The rise of human-led AI agents
 • The observability gap
 • Why Zero Trust principles must extend to non-human identities
 • The five core capabilities required to govern AI at scale

AI risk is no longer theoretical.
 It’s operational.

Now I’m curious:
Do you believe most organizations are prepared to govern AI agents at scale?

Yes
 or
 We’re still catching up

Let’s discuss 

#CloudSecurity #AISecurity #ZeroTrust #AI #MicrosoftSecurity #CyberSecurity #EnterpriseRisk #Governance

80% of Fortune 500 companies

I recently reviewed multiple research studies (2018–2025) on AI-driven cloud security in threat detection.

What stood out wasn’t the innovation.

It was the pattern.

Across SIEM, XDR, SOAR, IDS/IPS, anomaly detection, and cloud-native frameworks, the findings are consistent:
AI improves detection speed.
 AI reduces response time.
 AI enhances automation.
 AI lowers false positives (when implemented correctly).

But every single study also highlights the same friction points:
• Integration complexity
 • Over-reliance on automation
 • Data quality dependency
 • Interpretability challenges
 • Human–AI collaboration gaps

The narrative isn’t “AI will replace security teams.”

The real shift is this:
AI is becoming the operational layer of cloud security, but governance, interpretability, and hybrid decision models remain critical.

From 2018 to 2025, research has evolved from detection efficiency to human–AI collaboration frameworks.

That’s a major signal.
Now I’m curious:
As AI becomes embedded in SIEM, XDR, and threat detection pipelines,
 what do you think will define mature security teams?


A) Full automation
 B) Hybrid human–AI decision models

Interested to hear perspectives from practitioners 


#CloudSecurity #AISecurity #ThreatDetection #SIEM #XDR #SOAR #CyberSecurityResearch #ZeroTrust #SecurityOperations

After 10+ years in cybersecurity, here’s something that still surprises me:

Most organizations don’t fail because of lack of tools.
They fail because of false confidence.

I’ve walked into environments with:
• Enterprise licensing
 • SIEM deployed
 • Endpoint protection active
 • MFA enforced

And leadership genuinely believed they were secure.

But when we looked closer:
• No defined security review cadence
 • No ownership of identity hygiene
 • No clear executive reporting structure
 • No risk-to-business translation

Security wasn’t weak.
It was unmanaged.

The biggest shift in my career wasn’t technical.
It was understanding that cybersecurity is a leadership discipline, not just an engineering function.

Tools create capability.
Clarity creates resilience.

For those early in their security journey:
Don’t just learn products.

Learn how risk moves through a business.
That’s where real influence begins.

Many organizations assume that upgrading to Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 automatically means “we’re secure now.”

 The reality is more nuanced.

E3 covers the fundamentals, strong identity controls, encryption, and baseline compliance.

 It’s solid, stable, and enough for many environments.
E5 is where security becomes proactive instead of reactive.

 Advanced threat detection, deeper identity protection, and built-in threat intelligence change how risks are discovered and handled.

The real question isn’t which license is better.
 It’s what level of security maturity your organization is operating at.

If you’re focused on stability and compliance, E3 does the job.

 If you’re focused on anticipating attacks and reducing blast radius, E5 starts to make sense.

Licensing should follow risk, not marketing.

E3 helps you stay protected.
 E5 helps you stay ahead.


#Microsoft365 #M365Security #CloudSecurity #IdentitySecurity #Defender #Compliance #CyberSecurity #ITLeadership #SecurityArchitecture

The breach didn’t start with malware.
It started with a perfectly valid login.

Here’s what we uncovered during a recent security review:
• MFA was enabled
 • Endpoint protection was active
 • SIEM was ingesting logs
 • No obvious “red alert” was triggered

Yet an attacker:
• Logged in from a low-risk IP range
 • Used a legacy authentication flow
 • Accessed a service account with standing privileges
 • Began lateral movement within 40 minutes

Nothing was technically “broken.”
But identity governance was weak.

This is the shift many organizations haven’t accepted yet:
Modern breaches don’t smash doors.
They walk through allowed access.

Security maturity is no longer about blocking attacks.
It’s about reducing privilege velocity.

If access is permanent, attackers don’t need exploits.
They need patience.

Security leaders:
When was the last time you reviewed standing privileges across identity + service accounts?

Most cloud security incidents don’t begin with exploits.

 They begin with identity assumptions that quietly go unchallenged.

Over the years, I’ve seen the same identity mistakes repeat across tenants, large and small.

This short checklist highlights 7 cloud identity risks that exist in almost every environment.

 Save this for your next security review.
  Repost it if your team works with cloud identities.

Most cloud security incidents don’t start with exploits.

Most breaches aren’t missed because tools failed.
 They’re missed because no one was looking.

After reviewing many environments, one pattern keeps repeating:
 Alerts exist.
 Dashboards exist.
 Reviews don’t.

Here’s a simple weekly security review that actually works.

What to review every week
• High-risk sign-ins
 • Off-region login activity
 • Privileged account usage
 • Service account sign-ins
 • Endpoint isolation events

Why this matters
• Small anomalies surface early
 • Noise stays manageable
 • Real threats don’t hide for weeks

You don’t need a new tool for this.
 You need a repeatable habit.

 Save this and run it with your team
 Repost if this would help your SOC

What part of your security stack rarely gets reviewed, but should?

#CyberSecurity #CloudSecurity #MicrosoftSecurity #SecurityArchitecture #ITSecurity

Remote access shut down Colonial Pipeline.

Not malware inside OT.
Not a PLC exploit.

A remote access pathway.

In almost every OT assessment I’ve reviewed, remote access is treated as a convenience layer, not a critical control.

That’s the mistake.
Industrial environments today are no longer isolated.

 IT connects to OT.
 Vendors connect remotely.
 Engineers troubleshoot from home.
 Cloud analytics pulls plant data.

Every one of those connections is a potential bridge into the physical world.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Most OT breaches don’t require zero-days.
 They require weak credential control, flat architecture, or unmanaged vendor VPNs.

In this document, I explore why Secure Remote Access isn’t just an IT hygiene task, it’s a foundational control in modern OT risk management.

From:
• Defensible Architecture
 • Industrial DMZ placement
 • Ephemeral session design
 • Moving-target defense
 • Zero Trust in OT environments

If remote access is unavoidable (and it usually is),
 then it must be engineered, not tolerated.

Now I’m curious,
In your experience, what’s the bigger OT risk today?
Legacy systems
 or
 Uncontrolled remote access?

Let’s have a real discussion 👇


#OTSecurity #ICS #CriticalInfrastructure #ZeroTrust #IndustrialCyberSecurity #OperationalTechnology #RemoteAccess #CyberRisk

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The Battle

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