Motasem Hamdan

On February 11–12, 2026, Russian authorities removed WhatsApp from the national DNS and blocked access nationwide. Regulator Roskomnadzor and the Kremlin confirmed the move, citing non-compliance by Meta with local regulations. #CyberNews #Russia #WhatsApp #Meta

youtu.be/W-_TfHTEySI I've been analyzing the headlines about mass layoffs at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft while seeing the exact same companies offer $300k+ packages for AI Specialists, and I think we need to stop calling this a correction. A correction implies we will eventually go back to normal. We aren't going back. If you are waiting for the job market to recover to 2021 levels, you are waiting for a train that has already been scrapped. The only way forward is to aggressively pivot your skill stack to align with where the capital is actually flowing: AI Infrastructure, Security, and production-grade Implementation. Check out my video below for the full breakdown #jobs #tech #business

I recently audited the syllabi, textbooks, and "must-do" projects that consumed the first two years of my career. When I crunched the numbers, it came out to roughly 730 days. Two full years of grinding, memorizing, and stressing over concepts that, sitting here in 2026, I haven’t used in a decade. If I could go back and coach my younger self or if I can coach you right nowI would tear up that old roadmap. The industry has shifted too fast. AI didn't just change the game; it changed the board we are playing on. #infosec #infosecurity #careers #cyber

youtu.be/UjypHNl_f-E Most technical professionals view ransomware as a technical problem (restore from backup, patch the CVE). But to the Board, it is purely a business survival calculation. The question hanging in the air “Do we pay the ransom or do we shut down?” is the single most dangerous query a Board of Directors can entertain in the heat of a crisis We usually make the final decision on Day 3 or 4 based on which track wins. I recorded a full breakdown of this simulation, including how to present this to your Board before the attack happens. #ransomware #BusinessSecurity #infosec

youtu.be/ihdwVOxuKso ShinyHunters claim 94GB of Pornhub Premium data. Meaning if you are a premium Pornhub user, now your browsing histroy and videos you watched are at someone elses hands :) I’ve just finished analyzing the details of this breach (and the finger-pointing between Pornhub and Mixpanel). #pornhub #shinyhunters #hacking #tech #TechNews

youtu.be/KXtOtb7x6XQ In 2026, if you can’t read AWS CloudTrail, you aren’t a SOC Analyst. You’re a historian. Modern attacks don't look like hacks. They look like administrative tasks. If you are still hunting IP addresses, you are protecting a castle everyone has already moved out of. Identity is the new perimeter. I broke down exactly how to hunt these threats using Splunk and AWS CLI. Watch the full investigation 👇 #CyberSecurity #CloudSecurity #AWS #SOC #InfoSec

I keep seeing posts saying AI will kill cybersecurity jobs or the market is saturated. Based on what we are seeing such as the rise of AI and the huge impact of cloud, I believe what’s fading could be: -Pure log-watching SOC roles -Entry-level paths with no specialization What’s growing fast: -Cloud security -Identity & access management -AI security risks (and defenses) -GRC, risk, and compliance roles -Offensive security with real depth People should start preparing for 2026 cybersecurity instead of 2018 cybersecurity. If you’re building fundamentals plus cloud/AI awareness, the field is still one of the most resilient tech careers out there with demand outpacing supply. #cybersecurity #tech #careers #infosec

youtu.be/onU8kBfDKn8 CODE RED for Apple Users. Apple just patched two critical WebKit zero-days actively exploited in the wild (CVE-2025-14174 & CVE-2025-43529). Google TAG & Apple SEAR found these being used in sophisticated attacks likely mercenary spyware. If you visited a malicious link on Safari, you’re compromised. Make sure to update to iOS 26.2 / macOS Tahoe 26.2 immediately. If you are high-risk, enable Lockdown Mode. I broke down the technical details, the visit-and-compromise mechanics, and why WebKit is the ultimate target in my latest article. 👇 #CyberSecurity #Infosec #Apple #0day #ExploitDev #Privacy

youtu.be/q9JGj0uDpMU Let’s be honest: the traditional SOC analyst role is disappearing. Ten years ago, if you knew how to investigate an endpoint and check a firewall log, you were hired. Today? If you can’t navigate AWS CloudTrail, query logs in Azure, or hunt threats across GCP, you are fighting with one hand tied behind your back. The attack surface has shifted to the cloud, but most training materials haven’t caught up or they cost thousands of dollars. I want to change that. I just launched a brand new, completely FREE course: The Cloud SOC Analyst Bootcamp. #Cybersecurity #SOCAnalyst #CloudSecurity #BlueTeam #Infosec #CareerAdvice

Unpopular Opinion: Why I respect hackers more than compliance officers. It sounds reckless to say out loud, but after years in the SOC and later in auditing, I’ve realized something uncomfortable: Compliance maps how systems should work. Hackers show us how systems actually work. The tragedy of our industry is that we hire brilliant, paranoid minds to be hunters, and then we hand them a checklist. We force them to be audit-ready instead of attack-ready. Compliance is necessary because it keeps the company legally alive and of course our salaries lol :) . But let’s stop pretending it secures us. If we stop thinking like attackers because we’re too busy ticking boxes, we lose by default. To the SOC analysts: Your curiosity isn't a liability. It's the only thing that actually works. #cybersecurity #infosec #blueteam #redteam #soc #audit #compliance #hacking

motasem-notes.net/how-hacker… We spend a lot of time in the SOC making sure MFA is enforced everywhere. But lately, I’ve been diving deep into cloud forensics, and it’s becoming clear that for advanced threat actors, MFA is just a speed bump, not a wall. I wanted to share some notes on Token Replay attacks specifically how they bypass authentication entirely and, more importantly, how we can actually detect them when they generate almost zero Failed Login noise. #cloudsecurity #BlueTeam #ThreatHunting #SOCAnalyst #CyberSecurity #AWS #Azure #InfoSec #IncidentResponse

motasem-notes.net/why-siem-n… Unpopular Opinion: AI won't save your SOC. In fact, SIEM noise in 2026 is going to be WORSE. We’ve all heard the pitch: "Just add AI to your SIEM and watch the false positives vanish!" Vendors are promising that 2026 is the year AI-driven filtering finally solves alert fatigue. But if you actually work in a SOC, you know the math doesn't add up. Despite the billions being poured into "AI filtering," we are heading toward a noise crisis. Below is my personal breakdown on this: #SIEM #CyberSecurity #SOC #InfoSec #BlueTeam #CISO #SecurityOperations #AI

youtu.be/8JkkElsdpE8 So a pretty wild new vulnerability class just dropped, and if you work with React, Node.js, Next.js, or anything modern web-related… you’ll probably want to know about it. It’s called React2Shell basically a way for attackers to turn React Server Components into a remote code execution vector. Yep… a UI-layer feature leading to backend RCE. 2026 is off to a great start 😂 Cloudflare already confirmed their internal systems had exposure to this class, and several researchers managed to weaponize it using React’s Flight serialization protocol. #CyberSecurity #React #NodeJS #Exploits #WebSecurity #DevSecOps #Cloudflare #RCE

youtube.com/shorts/o2Jy9ty8j… Still hearing the word "phishing" and struggling to understand? check out the below reel Fake login pages, urgent emails, stolen accounts , phishing attacks are everywhere. If you’ve ever seen a sketchy message, congratulations, you just met phishing. #CyberSecurity #PhishingExplained #InfoSec #CyberAwareness #OnlineSafety #SecurityTraining #SocialEngineering #CyberCrime #DataProtection #HackingPrevention #tech

youtube.com/shorts/pu34N23GX… So still repeating in your mind what is a Firewall? Have a look at this: Think of a firewall as your digital bouncer, your backyard fence, and airport security all in one deciding what gets in, what stays out, and what needs to be blocked instantly. Cybersecurity doesn’t have to feel complicated. ✨ #CyberSecurity #InfoSec #TechExplained #CyberAwareness #BlueTeam #Networking #CloudSecurity #CyberTips #SecurityBasics #Tech101

youtu.be/fNHdKaRBDas If you’re running FortiWeb anywhere in your stack , or you maintain web apps behind one , you might want to pour a coffee and run a quick log check today. CVE-2025-64446 dropped with a bang (14 Nov), and it’s already on the Known Exploited list. The short version? A simple path traversal bug lets attackers read arbitrary system files , including SSL private keys, backend config files, database creds, and basically anything that shouldn’t be visible from the internet. If you want the full walkthrough (with visuals + threat hunting), the long-form video is here: #cybersecurity #threathunting #fortinet #incidentresponse #blueteam #cve #infosec

motasem-notes.net/how-hacker… Just posted a new deep-dive on something every blue teamer eventually learns the hard way: attackers rarely break Data Loss Prevention… they simply step around it. It’s honestly surprising how predictable the bypass techniques are, yet how often they still work: *Rename sensitive files so DLP doesn’t recognize them *Compress or encrypt the data before exfil signatures become useless *Split the payload into tiny chunks to slip under size thresholds *Route data through synced cloud apps (OneDrive, GDrive, etc.) so it looks “normal” *Abuse weak browser/endpoint rules that were never meant to stop real attackers And none of this requires elite skills. Just understanding how defenders think. That’s the real weak point. If you want the full rundown (with examples and why these bypasses succeed), here’s the write-up: #cybersecurity #DLP #infosec #SOC #blueteam #securityengineering #cyberthreats #datasecurity #cloudsecurity

youtube.com/shorts/i8Zi9eQ8Z… Ever downloaded a cracked app because why pay $20? Here’s the part nobody tells you: You’re not installing the app…You’re installing whatever the hacker secretly added inside it. Keyloggers. Crypto miners. Remote access. Your entire phone becomes their playground. If your battery drains fast, random ads pop up, or your phone feels haunted… That’s your free app charging interest. #CyberSecurity #Malware #Infosec #TechSafety #CyberAwareness

motasem-notes.net/the-5-secu… Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… You open a new Incident Response report, expecting a zero-day nation-state exploit. Instead, you find The Usual Suspects. The 5 Security Misconfigurations I've seen in Every IR & SOC Report: Public S3/Blob buckets left open Over-privileged CI/CD bots Trusting third-party vendors incorrectly with identity federation Forgotten dev/test environments still online Lazy Kubernetes RBAC practices #InfoSec #CyberSecurity #SOC #BlueTeam #CISO #IncidentResponse #CyberHygiene

youtu.be/0Fow-yesteU 2026 is going to break every old SOC playbook we relied on. AI-native malware… self-replicating worms… signatures that die the moment you deploy them. If your SOC is still depending on static IOCs, you’re already behind. I just dropped a new video explaining why defense strategies MUST change in 2026 and what teams should do right now to stay ahead. #CyberSecurity #BlueTeam #SOC #InfoSec #ThreatDetection #AIThreats #CyberDefense #BlueTeamSecurity #CyberSec2026 #MalwareResearch #CISO #SOCAnalyst #CyberAwareness