John Zakaria

System Administrator & Cybersecurity Specialist

System Administrator & Security Specialist dedicated to building resilient infrastructure. I combine high-stakes experience from the Future of Egypt national project with independent cloud engineering expertise.

View CV

About & Qualifications

Education & Training

Matruh University

B.Sc. Computer Science & AI (Major: IT) | 2024

GPA: 3.6 / 4.0

Information Technology Institute (ITI)

Cybersecurity Track | 2024

Cisco Networking Academy

CCST Networking (Career Path) | 2025

70-hour intensive training on network protocols & troubleshooting.

Technical Arsenal

Networking & Security

FortiGate Firewall CCNA Concepts OpenVPN TCP/IP & DNS Mesh Wi-Fi

Systems & Cloud

Windows Server Active Directory (AD) Linux (Ubuntu/CentOS) AWS (EC2) Windows VPS

Web & Email Infrastructure

cPanel Zoho Mail SPF/DKIM/DMARC IIS SSL/TLS

Programming

Python SQL Bash Scripting

Work Experience

IT Help Desk Specialist (Conscript)

Dec 2024 – Dec 2025

Egyptian Armed Forces (Future of Egypt Project)

Maintained 99% network uptime for 250+ staff in a remote sector.
Configured FortiGate Firewalls, managing VPNs and web filtering policies.
Administered Active Directory (User accounts, Permissions, GPO).
Troubleshot Mesh Wi-Fi and hardware for 30+ workstations.

Independent System Administrator

May 2024 – Present

Freelance / Remote

PinkMeUp Clinics Provisioned a Windows VPS, managed IIS setup, and implemented SSL encryption for their healthcare system.

Eltafawk Deployed .NET apps on AWS EC2 (Linux), optimizing resources to stay within Free Tier limits.

Email Security Migrated clients to Zoho Mail and fixed spam issues via SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration.

BrandArena Managed cPanel hosting, firewall rules, and uptime monitoring for an advertising agency.

Previous Roles

IT Help Desk Specialist @ Regency Hotel (2023) Managed LAN/Wi-Fi infrastructure and provided Tier-1 support for PMS and hardware.

IT Support & Developer @ GrandWaha Hotel (2022) Developed a Python/SQL app to digitize reservations; performed hardware maintenance.

Featured Projects

Linux OpenVPN Server

Built a secure VPN from scratch on Linux. Configured `server.conf`, PKI certificates, and `iptables` routing to bypass network restrictions.

Secure Mail Infrastructure

Implemented SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for clients on Zoho and cPanel to ensure 100% inbox deliverability and security.

NetLink (Award Winner)

3rd Place @ EISTF Science Fair. An automated attendance system using Wi-Fi MAC address scanning written in Python.

Let's Connect

Open for System Administration and Cloud Engineering opportunities.

Email

contact@johnzakaria.info

+201208196133

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