Zuhair Khan

Security · Software · Startups

Zuhair Khan

Final-year CS student at UofT focused on cybersecurity. I also build software and start companies.

Seeking Winter 2027 cybersecurity co-op roles in Toronto.

SecuritySoftwareStartups
View Experience →

Experience

Where I've worked.

Three security and software co-ops across healthcare supply chain, education IT, and an early-stage startup.

  1. May 2026 – Aug 2026

    Network & Cloud Security Co-op

    Mohawk Medbuy Corporation · Toronto, ON (Hybrid)

    • Investigated phishing and social engineering incidents using KnowBe4 PhishER, Proofpoint, and Cisco Umbrella; shadowed a third-party penetration testing engagement; resolved ServiceNow VPN, MFA, and access-control incidents through Entra ID and Exchange root-cause analysis.
    • Administered IAM and RBAC in the SAP Ariba backend across 75+ GTA hospitals — provisioning roles, managing MFA lifecycle operations, and reviewing user access for segregation-of-duties conflicts against ISO/IEC 27001 controls during a Deloitte co-delivered SAP S/4HANA transformation.
    • Led an Intune/MDM compliance initiative retiring stale device records and enforcing endpoint controls via LAPS-PAM; analysed Entra ID exports to flag mailboxes forwarding to external recipients, producing a risk-prioritised remediation plan for Plexus decommissioning.
    IAMIncident ResponseISO 27001SAP AribaEntra IDSecurity Operations

  2. Jan 2026 – Apr 2026

    IT Systems & Software Engineering Co-op

    University of Toronto Schools · Toronto, ON (On-site)

    • Built a SOC-style monitoring dashboard correlating Suricata IPS alerts with NetFlow, RADIUS, and NAT logs across 3 SQL databases to attribute suspicious network sessions to source IPs and individual users; troubleshot VLAN segmentation and DHCP addressing across academic networks.
    • Supported identity and access management for 750+ students and staff through Active Directory account and group changes, MFA enrollment, and Windows/macOS endpoint posture under least privilege; helped coordinate a third-party penetration test of school systems.
    • Contributed to in-house C#/.NET web applications using Entity Framework, SQL Server, GraphQL, and Blazor — including a barcode-based asset tracker — supporting Azure DevOps release workflows through improved logging and PowerShell automation.
    SIEMSuricataActive DirectoryC#/.NETBlazorIT Support

  3. Aug 2025 – Dec 2025

    Software & Systems Infrastructure Intern

    Offline Social Network Inc. · Toronto, ON (Hybrid)

    • Led internal application security risk assessments for an AI-driven mobile app, mapping controls to OWASP and NIST 800-53, reviewing authentication flows (OAuth 2.0, JWT, bcrypt password hashing), and documenting risk findings while tracking remediation to closure.
    • Investigated network-layer issues across AWS (Route 53, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect), correlating journald/syslog output with tcpdump/Wireshark traces to accelerate root-cause analysis for 1,000+ users.
    AppSecAWSOWASPNIST 800-53LinuxOAuth 2.0
    Website →

Ventures

Things I started.

Companies and organisations I founded or co-founded, from a B2B startup to an e-commerce brand and a global social impact nonprofit.

Jan 2026 – Present

Current

IDRAK

Co-Founder · Toronto, ON

B2B startup building real-time AI guidance systems for warehouse operations.

  • Designed and shipped a full-stack packing assistant deployed with Formula Scents, a Canadian e-commerce business processing 100–150 orders/day.
  • System integrates Shopify order ingestion, real-time worker tracking, and an admin analytics dashboard.
  • Leading architecture decisions, intern coordination, and product direction for a team of 5.
Startup LeadershipPythonFull-StackShopifyAI
Website →Devpost →

Jul 2024 – May 2026

KZ Collections

Founder · Toronto, ON

Traditional clothing brand — Moroccan thobes, farwas, and other premium cultural wear.

  • Architected and managed a production Shopify storefront, integrating payments, inventory, analytics, and third-party services.
  • Built custom backend integrations for automated inventory syncing and email marketing workflows, driving a 65% increase in conversion rate.
  • Ran end-to-end infrastructure — DNS, HTTPS certificates, CDN caching, and Shopify metaobject data models — alongside a team of 3 across marketing and fulfilment.
EntrepreneurshipShopifyE-CommerceFull-Stack
Store →GitHub →

Mar 2024 – Aug 2024

Quotis

Co-Founder & Tech Lead · Toronto, ON

Real-time marketplace connecting homeowners with verified service providers.

  • Led technical architecture for a React Native + Node.js platform with WebSocket messaging, AWS S3 media storage, and live arrival tracking.
  • Secured $4,000 in startup grants and built a waitlist of 20+ freelancers ahead of onboarding.
  • Managed agile delivery as Scrum Master across a distributed team.
React NativeNode.jsMongoDBWebSocketsScrum
GitHub →

Jun 2019 – Jun 2022

The Defy Organization

Co-Founder · International (Hybrid)

Global social impact organisation supporting orphans, labour workers, and people with disabilities.

  • Founded and led an organisation delivering 3D-designed and manufactured aid, sanitary resources, and food support.
  • Princess Diana Award recipient; Global Social Leaders Competition semi-finalist in the Impact category, among the top teams of 438 worldwide.
  • Raised $25,000+ through 8 corporate sponsorships and partnerships.
  • Expanded to 5 countries — UAE, India, Pakistan, U.S., and Egypt — leading 100+ volunteers and reaching 2,000+ beneficiaries.
  • Featured in international media and invited for UAE TV interviews.
Nonprofit LeadershipSocial ImpactFundraising3D Design

Selected Work

Projects & research.

Security tooling, systems and full-stack software, quantum research, and the community work alongside it.

Nov – Dec 2025

Network Intrusion Detection System

A from-scratch NIDS combining signature detection with statistical anomaly scoring, validated against real attack traffic.

IDS/NIDSPythonPCAPDockerDetection Engineering
GitHub →

Fall 2024 – Winter 2025

Web & Application Security CTF Portfolio

19 capture-the-flag challenges across the OWASP Top 10, each documented with an attack walkthrough and its mitigation.

CTFOWASP Top 10CryptographySplunk SPLPython
GitHub →

Fall 2025

Software Router & Network Protocol Engineering

A production-quality software router in C — 2,000+ lines implementing IPv4 forwarding, ARP, and ICMP — with a 100% test pass rate.

CSystems ProgrammingMininetWiresharkSDNPOX
GitHub →

Fall 2025

Access Control Hardening & Incident Response Labs

Hardened Linux and Mininet hosts, then correlated packet captures and auth logs to find the indicators of compromise they left behind.

LinuxSSHMFAIncident ResponseSplunk
GitHub →

Winter 2025

StockSocial

A full-stack platform pairing stock portfolio tracking with a social layer — portfolios, analytics, and shared stock lists.

FastAPIPythonPostgreSQLReactTailwind CSS
GitHub →

Winter 2024

Concurrent System Monitoring Tool

A Linux system monitor in C that parallelises data collection across processes and reports CPU, memory, and sessions in real time.

CLinuxConcurrencyIPCSignal HandlingDocker
GitHub →

Fall 2023

CMS Connect

An Android app centralising department announcements, events, POSt eligibility checks, and student feedback, built by a team of four.

AndroidJavaFirebaseMVPJUnitScrum
GitHub →

Winter 2024

MIPS Platformer

A single-screen platformer written entirely in MIPS assembly, rendering straight to a memory-mapped framebuffer.

MIPS AssemblyGame DevMemory-Mapped I/O
GitHub →Demo Video →

2025

Quantum-Safe Security: PQC vs QKD

Undergraduate research comparing quantum key distribution with lattice-based post-quantum cryptography under practical threat models.

PQCQKDQiskitCryptographyResearch
Poster →

May – Jul 2025

PennyLane Codebook

Completed every module of Xanadu's PennyLane Codebook, with original solutions to all chapters and exercises.

PennyLanePythonJupyterQML
GitHub →

2025 & 2026

Qiskit Global Summer School (2025 & 2026)

Two years of IBM's summer school — the 2025 Quantum Excellence badge, then 2026's Quantum Fundamentals track.

IBM QuantumQiskitError MitigationPython
GitHub →2026 Badge →

October 2025

Qiskit Fall Fest @ UofT

Placed 3rd overall building a hybrid quantum-classical learning model in a 24-hour hackathon.

QiskitPennyLaneQMLHackathon
GitHub →

Oct 2025 – May 2026

Q-SITE — Partnerships & Hackathon Associate

Sponsor outreach and hackathon coordination for Canada's largest student-led quantum computing conference.

PartnershipsEvent ManagementCommunity
Website →Instagram →

Sep 2023 – Aug 2024

Webmaster — UTSC MSA

Designed, deployed, and maintained the official website for one of UTSC's largest student communities.

ReactNode.jsMongoDBCommunity Leadership
Website →GitHub →

Sep 2022 – May 2024

Vice President Finance — The Citizens Foundation

Led financial planning and fundraising for UTSC's TCF chapter, a charity funding education access.

NonprofitFinanceFundraisingLeadership
TCF Canada →Instagram →

Apr 2024 – Aug 2024

Camp Events Coordinator — PMCC

Ran a 3-day multi-sport tournament for community youth, from bracket design through to prize distribution.

Youth LeadershipSportsEvent Management

Sep 2023 – Dec 2024

Event Organizer — The Omar Fund

Co-organised charity sports tournaments and youth-led fundraisers supporting local families in need.

CharityEvent CoordinationLeadership
Instagram →

Certifications

Credentials.

IBM

Aug 2026

Qiskit Global Summer School 2026 — Quantum Fundamentals

Verify →

Cisco Networking Academy

Jun 2026

Introduction to Cybersecurity

IBM

2025

Qiskit Global Summer School 2025 — Quantum Excellence

Badge →

CompTIA

In progress

CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701)

IBM

In progress

IBM Quantum Developer Certification

About

Outside of work.

When I'm not working on security or shipping code, I'm usually playing basketball, tennis, or soccer, in the gym, cooking, reading, or travelling somewhere new.

Always happy to connect — whether that's about security, startups, or whatever you're building.

Presenting quantum-safe security research at the CMS Undergraduate Research Symposium
Presenting at the CMS Symposium
Visiting Xanadu's quantum computing headquarters in downtown Toronto
Xanadu HQ, Toronto
KZ Collections pop-up shop at the University of Toronto Scarborough
KZ Collections pop-up at UTSC
Winning the interhouse basketball championship
Interhouse basketball championship