Available for Engagements

From National Defense
to Cloud Security

20+ years in defense and cybersecurity. Former Head of Cyber Security at Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense. Now protecting cloud infrastructure for enterprises across the region. AWS certified, SIEM expert, CIS practitioner.

security-posture.sh
$ security-audit --scope full --framework cis
Scanning infrastructure...
 
[PASS] CIS AWS Foundations v2.0 — compliant
[PASS] SIEM coverage — 10K+ detection rules active
[PASS] Cloud accounts — 25 tenants governed
[PASS] Incident response playbooks — current
[PASS] IaC governance — Terraform source of truth
 
Assessment complete. Posture: STRONG
Years in Defense & Cyber
20+
AWS Certifications
3
Tenants Managed
25
Detection Rules
10K+

Military precision.
Cloud-native execution.

I'm Murad Zeynalli — a Cloud Security Expert with a career that spans from naval operations and electronic warfare to leading cybersecurity operations at the national defense level, and now securing enterprise cloud environments.

At Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense, I led cybersecurity as Head of Cyber Security. Under my command, the MOD's Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC) was built, the cyber policy for 2020–2025 was developed, and the state information security strategy was driven into implementation. During my tenure, I built and trained SOC teams from the ground up — Tier 1, Tier 2, and NOC specialists.

Today at Commit, I protect multi-cloud environments across 25+ tenants, engineering SIEM detection rules, hardening infrastructure to CIS benchmarks, and governing security as code with Terraform. I bring military discipline to every engagement — structured, measurable, and mission-focused.

20+
Years in defense & cybersecurity
10K+
Alert rules engineered & tuned
90%
Alert noise reduction achieved
CSOC
Built national SOC from zero

Two decades of
operational experience.

Nov 2024 — Present
Cloud Security Expert
Commit • Remote
Securing multi-cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure). SIEM governance across 25 tenants with 10K+ Terraform-managed detection rules. CIS compliance, incident response, and security architecture for enterprise clients.
Oct 2021 — Jul 2024
Head of Cyber Security
Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan
Led cybersecurity operations for the national defense organization. Fortified DLP, EDR/XDR, SIEM/SOAR, sandboxing, and NGFW systems. Implemented the national "Strategy of Information Security and Cyber Security 2023–2027."
Jun 2019 — Oct 2021
Deputy Chief of Cybersecurity Department
Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan
Established the MOD's Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC). Developed MOD Cyber Conception 2020–2025. Built and trained Tier 1 and Tier 2 SOC analysts and NOC team.
Jan 2018 — Jun 2020
Chief of Information Security Section
Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan
Developed MOD Cyber Policy. Executed security policies, risk management strategies, and incident response protocols. Led team aligned to NIST and ISO 27001 standards.
Aug 2015 — Jan 2018
Chief of Defensive Cyber Operations
Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan
Led defensive cyber operations protecting critical infrastructure. Directed threat detection, incident response, and threat intelligence analysis. Implemented NIST-aligned defense strategies.
2005 — 2015
Naval Officer • EW&SI Engineer • Deputy N2 Intelligence
Azerbaijani Navy
10 years of naval service from Surface Warfare Officer through Electronic Warfare & Signals Intelligence Engineer to Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence (N2). Maritime security, SIGINT, and strategic operations.

End-to-end security
engineering.

From initial architecture through ongoing operations — comprehensive security services built on proven frameworks and real-world national defense experience.

SOC

SOC Operations

Design, build, and operate Security Operations Centers. Alert triage workflows, escalation procedures, analyst playbooks, and measurable KPIs. Built a national CSOC from zero.

SIEM

SIEM Deployment & Tuning

Full lifecycle SIEM engineering: Coralogix, IBM QRadar, Microsoft Sentinel. Log onboarding, detection rule development, noise reduction, and Terraform-governed alert management.

CIS

CIS Hardening & Compliance

Infrastructure hardening aligned to CIS Benchmarks. Assessment, remediation, and continuous monitoring for AWS, Azure, GCP, Linux, and Windows environments.

CLOUD

Cloud Security Architecture

Security architecture for multi-cloud environments. IAM governance, network segmentation, encryption strategy, and monitoring across AWS, GCP, and Azure.

IR

Incident Response

Incident response planning, tabletop exercises, digital forensics, and active response. Evidence collection, containment, and post-incident analysis with military-grade discipline.

IaC

Security as Code

Terraform-driven security governance. Alert definitions, parsing rules, dashboards, and compliance controls managed as Infrastructure-as-Code with full audit trails and drift detection.

Technical depth across
the security stack.

SIEM & Detection
Coralogix IBM QRadar Microsoft Sentinel DataPrime Lucene KQL MITRE ATT&CK Detection Engineering SOAR
Cloud & Infrastructure
AWS GCP Azure CloudTrail GuardDuty Security Hub IAM VPC
Security Tools
TrendMicro Trellix EDR/DLP Fortinet Suite Portnox NAC SolarWinds Cisco
Automation & IaC
Terraform Python PowerShell Bash gRPC APIs Git Docker Kubernetes
AWS Certifications
  • AWS Certified Security – Specialty Nov 2024
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect Nov 2024
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Sep 2024
Education
  • M.A. Defense & Strategic Studies U.S. Naval War College
  • Cybersecurity Specialization Israel Cyber Technology
  • Cybersecurity Program Naval Postgraduate School
  • Info Security Management DRESMARA, Brasov
  • Postgrad Naval Science & Operations Azerbaijan Naval Academy
  • American English, NATO STANAG Defense Language Institute
  • English, NATO STANAG 6001 Lithuania Military Academy
  • B.A. Maritime Studies Azerbaijan Naval Academy
  • Military Lyceum Diploma Nakhchivanski Military Lyceum
Frameworks & Compliance
CIS Benchmarks NIST CSF ISO 27001 SOC 2 PCI DSS HIPAA GDPR

Hardening infrastructure
by the book.

CIS Benchmarks are the gold standard for secure system configuration. I provide comprehensive CIS compliance services — from initial assessment through remediation and continuous monitoring.

Every environment is different. I tailor CIS implementation to your specific infrastructure, balancing security requirements with operational needs. The goal is not just a passing score — it's a secure, maintainable posture that your team can operate confidently.

My experience spans the full CIS ecosystem: cloud foundations (AWS, Azure, GCP), operating systems (Linux, Windows), container platforms (Docker, Kubernetes), and network devices.

  • [✓] CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark assessment & remediation
  • [✓] CIS Azure & GCP Foundations compliance
  • [✓] CIS Linux & Windows Server hardening
  • [✓] CIS Docker & Kubernetes security baselines
  • [✓] Automated compliance scanning & reporting
  • [✓] Remediation playbooks with rollback procedures
  • [✓] Continuous drift detection & alerting
  • [✓] Executive compliance dashboards & evidence packages
  • [✓] Team training on CIS implementation best practices

Let's secure your
infrastructure.

Whether you need a full SOC build-out, SIEM optimization, CIS compliance, or a targeted security assessment — I'm available for consulting engagements, advisory retainers, and project-based work.