From Student Job to Cybersecurity Superstar: Ayah's Guide to Breaking Cyber Barriers

Ready to meet the tech mentor we all needed? Ayah Abdeldayem's journey from a curious college student to an international cybersecurity leader will make you rethink everything you thought was possible in tech. Through her infectious energy and real-talk approach, she's showing us how to turn those "I don't belong here" moments into "just watch me" victories.

From crushing it at Lexmark with smart automation solutions to becoming one of America's most inspiring tech mentors, Ayah's keeping it real about the ups and downs of being a hijabi woman in tech. She's been there - from shaky hands during her first conference talk to now commanding international stages like she owns them. Whether you're dreaming of a tech career or looking to level up your cybersecurity game, Ayah's sharing all her secrets on building an authentic personal brand, staying safe online, and lifting others as you climb. Trust me, this is the kind of story that'll have you texting your sis saying, "Girl, we need to talk about this!"

Find Ayah:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayah-abdeldayem/

https://topmate.io/ayah

https://substack.com/@ayahabdeldayem1

https://medium.com/@ayahdayem03

Take Break ! Stretch and whatnot and check out our Qahwa Collective !! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Empowering Women in Cybersecurity and Research
• 11:33 Breaking Barriers
• 17:43 Building a Strong Online Brand
• 25:45 Discovering Passion in Cybersecurity Mentorship
• 30:29 Navigating Adversity in STEM and Tech
• 39:49 Cybersecurity Tips and Online Safety
• 46:43 Sharing Online Platforms for Networking

Transcript

Ayah: 0:00

I wasn't really expecting much from him. I had a few bookings a week and it was just like, oh, maybe this is not that much, like, maybe mentoring isn't for me. And then all of a sudden it just kind of blew up and I had like four to five meetings.

Hawa: 0:18

Salaam everyone, and welcome to Muslimism in Motion Professional Pursuits. I'm Hawa, your host, and here we celebrate the achievements of Muslim women while exploring strategies to balance the life you dream of with the life you're living today. Today, I'm joined by Aya Abdullayem, a cybersecurity professional, on a mission to safeguard digital assets, mentor the next generation and make technology smarter. Aya's story is one of innovation, resilience and intentionality in a rapidly evolving field. We're diving into her journey from mentoring budding technologists to building tools that predict migraines. Get ready to be inspired. So I'm Aya Kamaya. It is such a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to Muslimin's In Motion. Thank you again for your time, and I'm really excited to get into what you do. Before I start, though, I always have like a little preamble I give my guests, and that is you are stranded on a deserted island. What are three things you're bringing with you?

Ayah: 1:17

I'd say honestly, my laptop. I do everything on my laptop, so that's one. My phone also, and then also just a journal, because I'm really into journaling. I'm just writing down my thoughts throughout the day.

Hawa: 1:29

Really I've been trying to really get into that. I have a tiny little notebook because I'm really bad For some reason. I'm really bad about the whole sit down at one place and journal every day, type of thing. So I've been. I watched this like video and it was kind of like, oh, instead of looking at journaling like that, try, if you're having trouble journaling, just journal whenever you just have a thought or something. And I think it's kind of been helping me a little bit.

Ayah: 1:56

Yeah, I just been writing down my thoughts throughout the day and like ideas I want to work on.

Hawa: 1:59

Oh, awesome, cool, cool, cool Sounds good. So let's get started with our first thing. Who is Aya and what sparked your passion for the for, I guess, navigating the ever evolving world of cybersecurity?

Ayah: 2:14

So I am Aya. I'm a current junior at the University of Kentucky studying computer science, so I applied for just. I didn't really know what I was applying for. I kind of just saw a listing for student job for cybersecurity and I was like, well, might as well give it a shot. I ended up applying for it, went to the interview. The interview was mainly just asking me about some of the programming experiences that I've had, and then also like at the ending, they were like so how do you like safeguard those programs? And I was like, to be honest, I don't really know. I don't really know anything about cyber.

Ayah: 2:47

Going into the interview, it was just like I'm here because I applied for the job, right, so just going to the job, I knew nothing about cyber. I learned everything there. They did jump me into multiple different projects, all the different things that we do at the university to safeguard everyone's accounts, and so it was just through. That job is where I fell in love with cybersecurity. But I think it was really interesting to help keep students safe and then just be able to work on certain incidents and make the employees' jobs easier by doing certain automations. I thought that was cool. And then I also had an internship at Lexmark where I dove deeper into automation and that, I think, strengthened my love for cybersecurity, because then it was just not me doing incidents, and that, I think, strengthened my love for cybersecurity because then it was just not me doing incidents and it was also me doing more automation and monitoring. So I thought that was fun.

Hawa: 3:32

Oh, okay, so I see, I see, I see so awesome. So tell me about the Lexpro, tell me a little more about that.

Ayah: 3:39

Yeah, so at Lexmark I mainly went in as a SOC analyst, but where I just did incidents global incidents mainly and it was like if someone logged into their account and they did it multiple times and they kept failing, or if somebody logged in from an unknown IP address and so I'd go through and just investigate that further and see if it was benign or positive. And then I think throughout that time I just noticed there was a redundancy of continuing doing the same thing and it just felt like someone had to sit there and just continue clicking on different things. And so I went to go talk to a manager about possibly automating it and making people's lives a little easier. So that way it just runs in the background. And at that point I only had a few weeks left in the internship. So he was just like I mean, if you feel like you can do it, go for it, but it is kind of very pressuring to do it in that time period.

Ayah: 4:28

So I was able to start the automation. I was very determined to finish it within the few weeks time period that I was given. So I'd come home and I'd work on it. I'd go there and I'd work on it. Ask so many questions because I'm like doing my first full automation and it was pretty large. At the ending I was able to present it and it was really exciting. They actually still use it now and it saves a lot of people's time. I think that was really cool that I got to make that big of a difference.

Hawa: 4:53

That's amazing. Actually, that is so cool Because it's I don't know. For starters, right, it takes a lot of strength to be asked Because a lot of times, especially when you're an intern, you're just kind of like oh yeah, I'm just here, like you know, I'm just doing my best, but like the fact you were like actually I see this like this, uh, limitation in the system and the process, let me fix it. Like that's really awesome. And then you know the kind of impact that even engineers, like now, try to have in their organizations. Like that's really cool, I like that.

Ayah: 5:23

Yeah, it was cool that I got to like save some of their time to focus on more important things.

Hawa: 5:27

Absolutely, because I mean that time adds up. You might think like, oh, it's like an extra five minutes, but extra five minutes every day always adds up, so that's really cool. That's amazing. I love to hear that. Michelle, when I was kind of like looking into you and stuff, I kind of saw that you do not only do you do like cybersecurity, but I also noticed that you do like other research cardiology, neurology. Could you tell me a little bit about that?

Ayah: 5:52

Yeah, so I'm part of this minority participation group called LSAMP. It's the Louis Stokes Alliance participant of Kentucky and West Virginia in that group. So they do require us to like have some sort of research experience. So that made me jump into the realms of research, because I wasn't originally going to go into that, but I did start applying for multiple different researches. I wanted to do something mainly in the medical field. I think it was very inspiring to have computer science major in the medical field because there's a lot that you could do yeah absolutely.

Ayah: 6:26

So my first one I joined the cardiology lab, which is where we essentially made a fake artery and we hooked it up to a program that me and a few of the other research interns were programming. So we were able to hook up that artery to the program and then watch blood flow through it visually so we see exactly where the blood's flowing in the artery and all the different things it goes through and then kind of monitor what happens when certain medications are given through the bloodstream to see where that goes through your artery. So that was what I did for the cardiology lab. I did that for one year and then I recently joined the neurology lab, which is super exciting because I always had a passion for neurology. I do think it's really cool.

Ayah: 7:00

The brain's immensely crazy because there's so much different things that it can do absolutely, and so, um, I joined that lab recently. I'm the only computer science major in that lab right now. So it's really different because they're kind of just relying on me for the programs while they do all the medical lab results. So in that one we're currently building a migraine predictor. So we're using ai and machine learning and we're currently trying to build an app that we can push out to patients and have the patients kind of monitor when they get migraines, what triggers them or what things they might have done before that, and then have that app kind of just collect all the data and then my job is to just kind of massage that data and find anything that's similar between different things that they triggered all the different similarities and just build that into an AI model and have it learn when migraines might happen so that it might be a predictor for patients.

Hawa: 7:52

Wow, so you're doing really amazing stuff. So I guess, as somebody who's not really familiar with the whole medical lab, anything research. So what does that look like when it's time to? How do you guys test that? Do you have a test group that you roll that out to and then you use that data and then iterate from there? How is it like to be in that kind of setting where it's just like you're the CS person, everybody else is doing their little medical stuff?

Ayah: 8:23

How is that so? In the beginning we did struggle with getting patient data. Because of the HIPAA regulations, we weren't able to get access to any patient data, so we did have to roll out specific people that wanted to join it, so we pushed out a few flyers around the hospital. We had actually a pretty good turnout. We have around 20 people in our test group now that currently are using an app prototype that I was able to build, and so they're monitoring their migraines on there now and then, I think, once they're done, I think we're waiting a few months so that we can collect that data and try and see if we can build the algorithm.

Hawa: 8:59

Wow, that's amazing. Oh my gosh, mashallah man, oh my goodness, this is amazing stuff. Like you're building so many amazing things. I just feel like, if somebody has not given you flowers already, like mashallah, seriously, tabarak, allah, allah, put barakah on it, because that's serious stuff. You're just like spearheading it, oh my goodness. And you're still in college. Yeah, oh my goodness. And you're still like, and you're still in college. Yeah, my gosh, like hard balance, but we're figuring it out, yeah, like between like your course load and this, like I mean, this is just amazing, though this is really cool stuff. Wow, masha'allah, seriously, oh wow.

Hawa: 9:41

So I don't know, like, like, I'm just like I'm having goosebumps, like when you're explaining it, cause, first of all, I love when people like just like I can tell, like you're just so well versed and you really know what you're talking about, first of all, which is like really cool. It's one thing to like kind of do stuff, but another thing to like talk about it and like know what you're talking about. So that's number one. Number two, the amount and the stature of what you're doing is amazing as well, and it's just like you, you are just a single developer man. Yeah, that's serious stuff. So what stack do you use? What are you using to develop the app, because I know you said it was a mobile app.

Ayah: 10:21

Yeah, I'm currently using Swift, so we're doing it only through iOS and Apple. Now I haven't done anything with like Android because I'm not really familiar with that, so I'm using Swift to do the mobile app and then just like Apple developer tools.

Hawa: 10:35

Amazing. That's amazing stuff. Awesome, awesome, wow. So tell me about I guess you told me about a little bit of your research and everything which is really amazing. Mashallah, you talked about your cybersecurity experience certified everything. I think what I'd like to talk to you also about is your speaking experience. So I know you said that you're a creator and speaker. So tell me about how you even got into that, because I mean kudos to you. I mean, you're kind of killing it a little bit Doing this degree CS cyber research, like, and now you're doing speaking and all these things Like what made you get into that, like what sparked in your head and you're like you're doing speaking and all these things Like how, what made you get into that, like what sparked in your head and you were like, in addition to all the amazing things I already do, let's just add public speaking to the list.

Ayah: 11:33

Yeah, so I had my first speaking experience through my work. We put on a huge fiber security conference on campus every year and so when I first started it was their second year doing it and they were taking student volunteers as speakers and I kind of figured, well, why not? Like I'm one of the only two student workers here at the moment, I might as well just try it out. I was really nervous because that was like my first big speaking experience. There was a ton of students they invited like every single UK student could go there all the different faculty, all the different professors. They're expecting a huge turnout and I just volunteered. I was like might as well try it out. So I was put on a career panel where the students and the audience were able to ask me questions, and that one was a little more terrifying than kind of just giving a speech, because you don't know what questions you're expected to answer or what somebody's asking you, so you just have to like answer it on the spot. So I was a little terrified in the beginning. I was like really shaky. My whole family showed up. They were they're like recording me and I was just like shaken up because everything was all at one time um, but it did, it went really well. And then, once that happened, I was volunteered again for the second FiberCon.

Ayah: 14:15

That happened this year, but this time they wanted me as a 10-minute presentation. So it was just like writing a speech and go up there and give a 10-minute presentation. That, I think, was a little more rewarding because I was the only person up there and I had my speech already practiced, I was ready to give it. I had my slideshows on the back behind me so I was able to point out pictures and just talk about my background. So I think that was really relieving because I got to talk to other students that wanted to go into cyber and just tell them that it all works out. It's hard in the beginning, but once you start your roadmap everything goes well Absolutely and then fast forward from that.

Ayah: 14:53

I think just those two experiences themselves opened a huge door of other things that I could do. So I was able to also be an international speaker at Saigon, which is a large cybersecurity conference. That one is international, so that's like everyone across the country comes together. I was a virtual speaker for that one. So I recorded my speech, gave my slideshow and they were able to play it during the big conference that was in Europe and there was a ton of cyber security professionals there. That was also exciting. That is exciting. And then I've just been like featured on other podcasts and just like growing my connections on LinkedIn. I love that.

Hawa: 15:33

That's so cool. That is so cool. I just love hearing that because it's just like wow, like you're doing your thing, and you just have an air of like I don't know certainty and confidence about you. And I was actually going to ask about that because, to me, right, you're just like you know what I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to do this thing, I'm doing this thing. And I want to ask, like I don't know how did you get to that point? Because you're explaining yourself.

Hawa: 16:00

It's like an air of like confidence, right, and I think a lot of times, like I'm gonna just be real, like as women, our first instinct isn't to be like, wow, I'm doing this thing and I deserve to do this thing, I'm just going to do it, or let me just do this without second guessing myself, without hesitation. You know, a lot of times we're just like oh, why do I have this opportunity, or am I cut out for this? So I just want you to. I guess what I would like to ask is you know, have you ever had those moments? And, if so, how did you kind of push past that and be able to tell yourself like, hey, like, or I guess, not even have to tell yourself you're just kind of like going for it, right, or maybe when you do have those moments. What do you tell yourself in those moments like how do you push yourself back up?

Ayah: 16:47

so I definitely do have those moments. There are times where I'm like do I really want to do this, like is this really something that I can do? Because, again, being like a woman and also just a hijabi not a lot of times where you see someone out there, just out there, speaking about their, about their industries, with confidence, and so I do like think about it like I'm gonna push boundaries, like I'm gonna make changes, gonna make other students feel empowered other Muslims must feel empowered just like the thought of me going up there speaking is going to help so many other people, and so that's what helps me like push my confidence.

Hawa: 17:19

Awesome, yeah, and it's important, right, because, like, that's kind of the reason why we're here, because the truth is, we don't see a lot of people who look like us. So what do we do? We got to fill those gaps because, you know, I guess in my head it's like, oh, somebody doesn't do it, then can't I don't know, you can't really wait around. You gotta do yourself. See what happens. And I really respect that. That. That, uh, that outlook, mashallah.

Hawa: 17:43

So it goes without saying that you have a really good personal brand on, for example, like LinkedIn. It's probably the reason why I was able to find you too, because, like, I really like how your page was, how it put together was and, honestly, your impressive resume. Let's be honest, from back to back to back, you're just doing the thing. I guess. Would you like to speak on the importance of having that personal brand and building that kind of online presence, even if the goal isn't to be like super celebrity, super influencer? Could you speak to about that, because I've spoken to people about this too, just because personal branding nowadays almost is almost I guess I would say almost is a requirement, because, at the end of the day, right, there's a bunch of people applying for the same position you are. How are you going to stand that? How are you going to tell your story?

Hawa: 18:36

And if the recruiter goes on your LinkedIn and sees a blank LinkedIn, are they going to hire you? Are they going to hire the person who talks about their accomplishments, their achievements, what they've done, even if you haven't won awards or done whatever, somebody who talks about their journey, from the projects that they worked on to the languages they've learned and what that took, and talks about their personal experience? Things like that, to the smallest degree, can make an impact on whether somebody does decide to say, hey, I do want to hire this person. Or, even better, yet you don't even have to apply because people are literally finding you. When they search up cybersecurity engineer or software engineer and they see you pop up, they're like, oh, this is the type of person we're looking for. So would you like to talk about, I guess, your journey, building your personal brand and how you can see that manifest today and the returns on that, even before you even graduate and are looking for full-time work?

Ayah: 19:37

So I started building my personal brand about a year and a half ago on LinkedIn is when I started actually posting. I do think it has had such a tremendous overlook to it. I do think what you said is true it's become more of a requirement to build your personal brand, especially as a computer science major. There's a ton of computer science majors out there and the job pool is just very oversaturated. And so, even just going into cybersecurity, more people are trying to apply to it. It's becoming an ever-evolving field and it's hard to get jobs if you're just giving them your resume or just giving them your contact information. So I think building my personal brand on LinkedIn has helped me tremendously. I've had a few recruiters actually reach out to me already, asking to email them back once I graduate full-time offers and I think that's just been so rewarding, because I've spent a year and a half trying to build a personal brand on LinkedIn. I have all these recruiters reaching out to me. So I've just had that feeling in the back of my mind that I'm like once I graduate, I'll have a great full-time job and I'll be able to reach out to those recruiters and tell them that I graduated, and so I just think that just has such a good reward to it.

Ayah: 20:42

I think a lot of people starting to build their own brand on LinkedIn. In the beginning it's very scary. I mean I started posting just to my connections because I didn't want to post it publicly. And then I was like, well, this is not really reaching the amount of audience that I want it to reach. So I started to post publicly and I think that's when it blew up. So in the beginning I got a few reactions, a few impressions and I was like is this even worth it? But then if you consistently post, consistently share your achievements and just what you've been working on, I do think that has a great overturn value.

Hawa: 21:12

Absolutely and to your point. It's like, yeah, like at first you're not gonna get the numbers you want, that's natural, right when you're first starting on anything. But what's important is that you stuck with it and you kind of took that leap and you're like you know what time to open up the gates, let everyone see my stuff. But it paid off. I mean, look at what you're doing, mashallah. And it's just like a testament to don't be afraid, especially like if you know what you're talking about. That's the thing so many people actually do know what they're talking about. And speaking to myself first, a lot of times I'm really bad, especially about like second guessing myself, even at work, like I'll know something, and then when I'm put on the spot or in a meeting, I'm just like, uh, you know, and it's not good and inshallah, I'm working on that actually because it's important. Like when you know what you're talking about, just say it. And sometimes you will be wrong and that's fine, but that's all part of the experience, that's all part of learning. I think that's another thing too. People just need to be, I guess, more publicly wrong, so then everybody will just stop being afraid of being wrong and then also being lambasted on the internet for it too. I think that's part of it too, because a lot of people are just like, ooh, if I mess this up, then people are going to cancel me, people are going to do this. But I mean, I don't know, it's just not that serious. It's LinkedIn. Everybody's just trying to make it, so you know. But I think it's really cool that I mean, you're able to do this and, honestly, really impressive. And I like that because, at the end of the day, sometimes when you are hijabi, like you kind of mentioned earlier, it's like why me, or how me, especially living in the west and there's not a lot of hijabis, you know, yeah, we're like what if people just, you know, write me off and they're just like they don't really give me Listen, you know what you're talking about, you have the resume, you have the projects to prove it. I mean, do you really want the attention of people who are just going to write you off anyways, because you're a hijabi or a Muslim or a minority? Probably not, right? So, whoever, as long as you and like you said, you did the work, you put the work in, you're getting offers from people, so it clearly pays off, right? Yeah. So to those of you out there who are thinking or letting your LinkedIn gather dust, I implore you start working on it now, because it pays off. It seriously does Like to what you said.

Hawa: 23:41

I've gotten like past speaking engagements and stuff as well, because of my LinkedIn or because of the connection I had on LinkedIn. Somebody said like, oh, this person referred me to this or you to try this. Or hey, I saw your LinkedIn, I saw your personal website and was like, oh cool, like I want you to try this. Or hey, I saw your LinkedIn. I saw your personal website and was like, oh cool, like I want you to speak on this, blah, blah, blah. And that's actually something I need to work on, like posting my speaking stuff, because I don't do that and I just realized all my LinkedIn is not up there, so that's weird, anyways, so that's something I'm definitely.

Hawa: 24:13

I'm always like going on linkedin and kind of like tweaking what I have because, even if it's not like for a job, I still want to connect with people or like-minded individuals. So it's like well, don't look at it as like the end all be all. Like, oh, I'm on linkedin and I have to use this to get a job. It's a tool to meet cool people, it's a tool to discover new like events and you know conferences Just talk to people on there Kind of reduces the pressure a little bit. I know, like for computer people, computer science people, it's kind of pressure's on Real tough. It's the market.

Hawa: 24:52

But like I feel like I don don't know about you, but people can kind of smell the desperation when you know you're just kind of like reaching out for a job versus like not saying you know life is tough, so like I get it. Obviously it is very tough. So it's hard not to be desperate because you're like you don't want to be homeless or broke. Nobody wants that, especially now. But I think it's important to approach these situations with an air of some air of genuineness, I guess, because it's past the job thing, past internships, you know there's always a person behind that right Sometimes if you just get another person, then the opportunities will naturally come as well.

Hawa: 25:34

But yeah, I really appreciate you speaking on that because yeah, uh, super important, all right, so let's uh moving on to the next questions. So take us back to your first aha moment. How did you know that like cyber I know you talked about like kind of like how you got into it and stuff. But was there a moment where you were like, okay, this is my field, like I'm just nothing else in this life or maybe there will be in the future, but right now, as of this moment, this is all me? Was there a moment like that for you?

Ayah: 26:16

I think there was at the job that I work at at my university as a cyber analyst, I think, putting on. So we were given a flash drive. On my first or second day there, me and the other student worker were given a flash drive and it had malware content on it and so my manager just told us to plug it into a laptop that we don't really use and just try to see what the malware was and investigate it and see if we can find IPs block and just try to see what the malware was and investigate it and see if we can find IPs block them. And both of us were kind of very new to the problem of cybersecurity so we weren't really sure what to expect. We plugged it in, all the malware started downloading on the computer and we were just in shock. We didn't really know what to do with it.

Ayah: 26:48

But that was my first experience of me going into something super serious in cyber and I don't think everyone really has that opportunity to go into right away when they start their cyber jobs because mainly it's just documentations or going through making dashboards, and so having that first experience is what made me realize yeah, cybersecurity is definitely for me, because it's always a different day. I'm always excited to go to work because nothing's always the same and there's always something new to work on every single day.

Hawa: 27:15

Mm-hmm, I'm always excited to go to work because nothing's always the same and there's always something new to work on every single day. That makes sense. Yeah, honestly, that sounds kind of cool. Sometimes I know people in cybersecurity and like, sometimes when I hear about it, I'm like man, that sounds so cool.

Hawa: 27:25

But it's also a whole different world because it's like the things that you guys talk about and I'm not going to lie, it's like I feel like when I'm hearing like cyber people talk about, the industry is like when it's like when you're first starting, I don't know. I feel like it's like when my friends tell me when I'm talking about like computer stuff. That's how I feel when I'm talking. When I hear people talk about cyber, because it's like literally like its own, I don't know, like there's I wish I can even give an example, but I think the, the, it's so dense, like there's so many like acronyms and everything and so many certs and everything. I'm just like, oh my god, like on top of the fact that you have to be an engineer, you're also putting yourself through all of these things. I I really respect it and also like fear a little bit.

Ayah: 28:18

I do think it's very different from like just being a software engineer or like a software developer. You do have that other mindset of being able to explain, because there will be a lot of people on your team that aren't very technical. So you have to build that strength to kind of explain what you're doing to them in non-technical terms, so in a more executive way exactly because that is true.

Hawa: 28:38

Like you guys kind of are like a bridge between like, maybe, like, and other engineers, and then also maybe the not so technical folks, especially when they're certain, like, for example, at our company, we have like these cyber security initiatives and the forsaken phishing emails and blah, blah, blah Just like trying to like rationalize to people like these things are actually quite serious. Guys like can't just click on random links, and some people seriously just don't get it. They're just like hello, can't be that serious, but it actually is that serious. Yeah, that is very interesting, but it actually is that serious. Yeah, that is very interesting. So, as a mentor and a speaker, you have inspired a lot of people, including myself, because, honestly, mashallah, could you talk to us about your mentoring journey and the lessons you learned from mentoring people and how it kind of shaped your own?

Ayah: 29:34

I recently started mentoring about a few months ago actually I joined top mate and was able to go through there and make my own um appointments and bookings with people to join me and I've had like I wasn't really expecting much from.

Ayah: 29:47

I had a few bookings a week and it was just like, oh, maybe this is not that much, like maybe mentoring isn't for.

Ayah: 29:53

And then all of a sudden it just kind of blew up and I had like four to five meetings a week, like sometimes it was like six, and it was like a few in a day. And so it was just me like especially like starting school and having like those bookings. I had them, like I had my appointment times, like in between classes. I'd be like walking to class and just taking a mentorship call and just being able to talk to them through cybersecurity. And a few of them that I mentored in the very beginning reached out to me and they were like oh, we just passed our cybersecurity certification exam that you recommended to us and I think that was just so heartwarming to see that they were actually following my advice and going through with it and actually getting the certification. And then recently TopMate selected me as the top 50 cybersecurity mentor in the United States and I think that was huge because that just shows that I've been making a difference of many different people going into cybersecurity.

Hawa: 30:42

Yeah, that's amazing. Oh, that's so cool and honestly, I hadn't really heard of TopMate before. I've heard of, like other. How did you even find it?

Ayah: 30:53

So one of the recruiters actually reached out to me on LinkedIn and told me a little bit about the platform, told me to check out a few influencer LinkedIn pages that use TopMate, and so I was looking through it, doing my research, and they just asked me if I wanted to be part of it. And so I was looking through it, doing my research, and they just asked me if I wanted to be part of it, and so I decided to join it, and I think that's one of my most favorite things in Top Mate. It's just so rewarding. They give you a thing at the ending. Once I got selected for a Top 50, they emailed me and told me if I posted on my LinkedIn, they were going to put all the posts on a New York City Times billboard, and so I think that's huge. That is huge. We'll be featured on there for like 15 seconds, that's awesome.

Hawa: 31:31

Oh, that's so cool. Are you going to go up there and to New York and wait for your post?

Ayah: 31:38

I mean, if they tell me when, then yeah, yeah, for sure, I think that's cool.

Hawa: 31:42

No, that's amazing and it's nice because mentoring is already pretty. You know a selfless thing, right, Like yes, you gain and you learn, but then also it's really cool that you're taking the time, I mean from even walking to class, like taking people's calls and helping people out, like that. So I think it's really cool that I mean, in a way, you deserve that, because it's like that's really cool. You helped so many people and I'm sure, being a top 50 anything is amazing, so it means you must have helped a lot of people, so that's really amazing, honestly. So, with that being said, what is some advice you could give to young women, especially Muslimos, that want to kind of step not just into cybersecurity or not just cybersecurity but like STEM or tech in general?

Ayah: 32:30

right, yeah, I'd say kind of just don't really listen. There's a ton of haters that'll tell you out there that you can't do it because you're a woman, because you're Muslim, because you're hijabi or a woman. But it's just kind of muting that out and knowing that you can do it and just like continuing doing anything that you think you can and making that you think will make a difference. So just don't hold back on obstacles. Those are just like things in the back of your mind. So just like keep a clear path in mind and just go for it Like there's nothing you can ever lose.

Hawa: 32:59

That's amazing, yeah, I mean, that's just the truth. People, especially when you are a trailblazer, as they say, if you're not getting some kind of like adversity probably not doing like if you really want to make a difference and you're not getting any type of adversity at all, you have to ask yourself are you really doing it Like? You know, cool if you did, and that's really lucky and cool. But let's be clear really lucky and cool, but let's be clear. You know, I think part of this journey and part of the whole um making strides to make a difference, to actually contribute to society, to to contribute to your community right, it's going to come with, like some pushback. It's going to come with people saying naysayers, people saying, oh you sure. And even well-meaning people who maybe they're just looking out for you, like are you sure you want to do this? I don't know, are you sure? And even well-meaning people who maybe are just looking out for you Are you sure you want to do this? I don't know, are you sure you want to wear this? Because I don't know if people might do this and blah, blah, blah and so on and so forth, and while they all might mean well and not mean well, at the end of the day, right the thing is, if you budge or you stick, like you got to stick to your guns, you got to stick to why are you really doing this? Right, and that's kind of what helps you carry yourself through. Like I remember when I was first starting to work, there are some people who, would you know, meaning well-meaning members of community, slash family would be like sure, you want to wear your hijab like that because you know people might not be a cool fan of that and they mean well, like that's cool. But I knew in my heart why I was wearing hijab, first of all. Second of all, I knew who I was wearing it for Allah. So the same Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I, so the same Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, I'm wearing this hijab for? Is the same Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to protect me when the going gets tough? Because, like A, you're not going to want an opportunity, who wasn't going to hire you anyways? Because of this B, you never.

Hawa: 35:02

Even if you're in an opportunity and maybe people, let's say, you start wearing hijab and people start treating you weird, that's just a sign that you don't need to be there, because why would you need to be anywhere. That's not, you know, accepting or just accommodating, first of all, yeah. And if you're not even necessarily accepting or accommodating of what you're putting on your head, can you imagine when it's Eid or when it's time to pray, or Jumar or whatever it is, and you try to ask like, hey, like, can I go to Jumar? You don't want to be in that situation, that kind of sucks. So, you know, all of these things are just also ways of protecting us as well, just to tell us like, oh, this is not a situation I need to be in regardless. So, without all that being said, this is why we're doing these things, because at the end of the day, so that when the next wave or the next generation comes along, they feel like, oh, I can't exist as myself or as my whole self in these spaces and not be lambasted for it or just live my life, because a lot of times it is peaceful to just be in an environment where it's just like, oh, I don't have to think about certain things, I don't have to. I think we really underestimate sometimes, especially I don't know about you, but I grew up in a majority white area, so you kind of don't think about it. Until you're not in one, we're just like, oh wait, I'm not like having to explain everything. And also like hyper what is it Like hyper vigilant of my surroundings and all these things. So I can understand if you didn't grow up in that how you would want to be like more comfortable and it's you know, it's easy to just be like, hey, you know what I'm going to stick to what works for me, and I respect that and there's value in that as well. But I also think that it's worth. It's like you got to think about.

Hawa: 36:53

There's a saying that goes a good society is a society where the man who plants a tree not for himself, but like for the future generations to sit under, so it's like the future generations to sit under. So it's like we, our generation, slash our time. We got to set that foundation for the next people, right? And nobody's saying it's going to be easy. Nobody's saying it's going to be easy to plant a tree and water it constantly and trim it and all these things. And nobody's saying that we're necessarily even going to see the benefits of that tree by the time we're done. But we're not doing it because we're here to reap the benefits of the tree or the fruit or whatever. We're here because, and we're doing it because we want the next generation and people who come after us to reap those benefits. So, long story short, that's how I think of this thing.

Hawa: 37:48

Right, and, like I said, the way the whole system is, or whatever, I don't blame people who think, you know, want to be in their space, in their world, because it's okay to, and sometimes it is exhausting and I acknowledge that fully. But I also believe we need those of us who need to push, make the pushes, make the changes, make the, and whatever way that looks like and whatever industry you're in, but making that, those strides, pushing those boundaries, to kind of like make the changes for the next one. So then, that way we don't have to live in a way where we're minimizing ourselves and we don't have to have spaces that are just like, oh, comfort. We can just be comfortable, as is where we are, wherever we are.

Ayah: 38:39

That kind of goes with one of my favorite ayahs in the Nile of St Esther. So like barely with every hardship comes ease, so it's just like you going through all the hardship of trying to push those obstacles is going to help all the younger muslim future generations absolutely you already got to the next segment.

Hawa: 38:59

that's okay and that's awesome because it just ties it all back to it. So that kind of brings me to another thing I wanted to ask you like was there a time where you kind of had to pull like your dean into? You know what you're doing? Maybe there was, because I know some sisters, when I talk to them about their journeys, sometimes it's like oh, they have, basically they have to have a come to Allah moment, because they're like I don't know if this is for me, I don't know if my degree or what I want to do, I don't know, because there's just all these obstacles and everything's really hard and annoying and frustrating. Maybe this is just a sign that I just got to move on and keep finding something else. So have you ever had a moment like that and how did you get past that?

Ayah: 39:43

Yeah, so I actually have, during my freshman year, just starting computer science and going through that. It was really hard, like computer science in itself. And then just like the beginning, like engineering courses they made us take, and so like there were times where I just had to sit there and like make die and like ask Allah, that was like good for me to like continue doing computer science, or if I should change my major or do something slightly easier, and just like since then I've started like getting better signs. That's when I got my internship, my part-time job, and so I think those were his signs of telling me to just to continue and like everything will get better and so like piggybacking again on, like that favorite ayah that I said, just like every hardship, there's always something that'll be easier in the ending.

Hawa: 40:26

Absolutely, absolutely. Like every hardship, there's always something that'll be easier in the ending, absolutely, absolutely. And then also, I think, another perspective I saw recently which kind of like gave me a little like brain explosion was like sometimes there's even ease in the hardship and vice versa, like that's why you know, we're always told to like be grateful, and I will increase us, because sometimes, within whatever you're going through, there might be something else that, like you don't even realize that is a benefit to this. But maybe you're going through there might be something else that, like you don't even realize that is a benefit to this, but maybe you're not seeing it because of the perspective. But if you shift your perspective and kind of look at, okay, like what am I getting from this? What is Allah giving to me? Is he making me stronger so like I can go through this easier in the future? Is he giving me the tools to be the person that I want to be, things like that right. So I think these all, perspective is definitely key and I think that's really cool and a statement honestly a lot of people can relate to.

Hawa: 41:16

I know myself because, yeah, you know, see us, it's no joke, buddy, it's no, no joke. So with that, I'd like to ask you one more thing. As a cyber security professional, I'm sure you see all these like not like aside the bad actors of the internet, you also see us normal folk on the internet and on our computers and just minding our business. I'm sure you're seeing a lot of people doing a lot of things that probably make you cringe, or just I'm. Maybe your friend uses like the same 10 passwords for like her tiktok, her instagram, her facebook, whatever. So what's one piece of cyber security advice you think people ignore, but absolutely shouldn't?

Ayah: 42:03

I don't know if I could think of like one particular like tip. There are a few I have in mind that a ton of people do and I'm like they should definitely know not to do this. One would be just make sure you're clicking on links you think you can click on, especially being a student and having a ton of the bad actors go into your student account and try to email you different links A few that we actually got recently would say like job available, like job opportunity, and that, of course, would catch a lot of students' eyes. They end up clicking on the link and just get infected and just think nothing of it. So just do make sure you're reading through emails. If they do a fishy, report as phishing. And then, of course, like the university cybersecurity team, which is our job, is to kind of look through it and then block us under if it is malware or phishing. Mm-hmm, our job is just to kind of look through it and then block the thunder if it is malware or phishing.

Ayah: 42:49

Another one like you suggested, using a password manager is one of the really good cyber security professional tips, just like having the different passwords be generated and also like the storage. That way nobody's able to get to it and no one's able to like guess your password, because there's no similarities between different websites that you use and then one that I've actually been seeing like circle around LinkedIn, which is like really specific but just like really irks me. When people do, it is when people would post on LinkedIn. It's not really like recruiters, but they're mainly just like random people that have posted and it'll be like email me or like put your link in the comment section if you want me to like give you the job opportunity link. I just think it's crazy. People are actually putting their emails in the comment section because it's just like you're giving your email to everybody on the internet.

Hawa: 43:36

Actually yeah, can we talk about that? Because I've just been seeing that and I'm like it just gives scam vibes.

Ayah: 43:44

I don't know. Sorry to those out there, it seems really 50.

Hawa: 43:47

It's weird, right. And then I remember I saw this thing where somebody called it out and they're like guys, they had a post and they're like, yeah, why are people just putting their emails out there? Anybody can just go on your email and then use very common let's be honest A lot of people's passwords and things are just very publicly accessible information. It doesn't take much. Especially, somebody makes like a little little bot, little automation, to just like run through a bunch of passwords for a person. You know what I mean.

Hawa: 44:16

But yeah, then people were like you know, almost like running her off, being like, oh no, like these are people who are trying to provide opportunities. If you want to provide opportunities, how about this? Yeah, how about you make a cute little landing page? You ask people and like, on most of these, like little site builders, like, let's see, like mailchimp or something or mailer light, you can literally just be like even something like substack. All you gotta be like is hey, if you want access to this, put your email in this thing, join my mailing list, and obviously, yes, we know it's a lot more work, so people aren't really gonna do it and they're gonna.

Hawa: 44:52

Oh, I gotta link and I'm not, you know and linkedin doesn't really prioritize links that I'll go out to, yeah, but it's still weird, like I don't know, I don't want it that bad, like I would rather just dm the person. Like they say dm, comment, you don't have to comment, you could actually just dm them and then they put the email on their email list. But I digress. But, yeah, I, that one is like a weird new one that I'd be seeing and I'm just like, yeah, this is making it just feels weird. Like when I see it, I'm just like this doesn't feel right, something about this and a ton of people are just throwing their emails in there and it's like guys you're just making it easy, guys.

Hawa: 45:27

I there and it's like guys, you're just making it so easy, guys, I don't know. It's just kind of like I don't know. It reminds me of like I don't know. It's like it reminds me of like when, like these AI, like image editor things would come out and a lot of people were just I forgot like this really popular one that everybody was using and people would just like put their take pictures and do whatever and put like a bunch of pictures in there and it's. It seemed fun, but like, the nerd in me was just like I don't know if I, how much I can enjoy this. My friends would be like, oh girl, it's okay, it's just a picture.

Hawa: 46:02

but like I kind of knew that and I I was like you know, I don't want to be party pooper, but like they're just going to use our pictures for, like, their image models and they basically, and the fine print says they have the rights to do whatever they want with your picture once you put it in there. Yeah, you know, and you don't read the fine print and say whatever you want with your picture. I just I don't know. I'm just I don't know. You know, the cute little dog AI version of me is just not cute enough for me to sign off the right to my picture. Yeah, but anyways, thank you so much. I really did learn a lot from you. I really enjoyed this conversation. Before we, you know, sign off, where can people find you?

Ayah: 46:47

first of all, yeah, um, so linkedin mainly. I also just started a sub stack, so that's also another one, and then also medium, so I post blogs on medium awesome, okay, cool, and yeah, I'll post all of those links in the show notes slash description.

Hawa: 47:06

So, yeah, well, thank you so much for your time for just your story, everything, and I pray that you know lots of buttercup gets put in all your endeavors and you just have lots and lots of success in everything that you do. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you all right.