Hi, I am Roman Smal.Ambitious.Strategic.Intelligent.
I transform ideas into results through deep analysis and relentless execution, using every challenge to push boundaries and raise the bar.
Get to Know Me
My Journey
I have spent the last few years getting good at one thing: understanding how systems fail, and what it takes to defend them properly. It is work I find genuinely absorbing, across offence and defence alike.
That has taken me from red teaming enterprise infrastructure during an internship at Cloudflare, to building and running my own detection and monitoring platforms, to probing how new AI systems can be pushed to misbehave. What ties it together is the same instinct: understand not just how something breaks, but how you catch it the next time.
I founded and led the Cyber Security Society at my university until I graduated in 2026, and defended a breach response strategy under questioning from government and industry judges at the UK Cyber Leaders Challenge. I compete in CTFs, placed 3rd at AI Odyssey 2026 in London, hold hacker rank on HackTheBox and am eJPT certified.
Away from the keyboard I follow the security world closely, through disclosed reports on HackerOne and podcasts like Risky Business and Three Buddy Problem, always trying to separate the noise from the threats that actually matter.
Skills & Expertise
Cybersecurity Core Competencies
- Adversary Simulation: Red team engagements and internal assessments, then closing the loop with the defenders
- Detection Engineering: Turning attacker behaviour into KQL and correlation rules that fire, and tuning out the noise
- Incident Response: First alert through triage and containment to remediation, under time pressure
- Security Automation: Playbooks, hardening scripts and compliance checks, so controls are verified by code rather than by hand
- Security Reviews: AI tools, agents and SaaS integrations assessed for what they can reach and how they can be misused
- Investigation & Communication: Methodical root cause analysis, explained clearly to any audience
Technical Skills & Tools
- SIEM & Monitoring: Microsoft Sentinel (KQL, Logic Apps), Graylog, Elasticsearch and ELK, OpenSearch, Wazuh
- Programming: Go, Python, PowerShell, Bash, SQL, Node.js, Git
- Offensive Tooling: Own C2 framework in Go, Burp Suite, Metasploit, Nmap, Wireshark
- Networks: TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, VPN, firewalls and segmentation, traffic analysis
- Cloud & Systems: AWS, Azure, Microsoft 365, Docker, Linux and Windows administration and hardening
- Frameworks & Compliance: MITRE ATT&CK, OWASP Top 10, CVSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR
Experience
Red Team Security Intern
Cloudflare
London, UK
JUN 2026 – SEP 2026
4 months
Cyber Lab Assistant
University of Roehampton
London, UK
OCT 2025 – MAY 2026
7 months
Co-Founder & Operations Director
Model Agency
Ukraine / Remote
AUG 2021 – AUG 2023
2 years
Cadet to Fourth Engineer
Stolt Tankers
Worldwide (sea)
DEC 2019 – JUN 2021
1 year 6 months
Education
BSc Cyber Security
University of Roehampton
London, UK
Grade: First Class Honours
Marine Engineer
National University "Odessa Maritime Academy"
Odessa, Ukraine
First Class Honours
Articles
Sharing my insights, projects, thoughts, and experiences
My Red Team Internship at Cloudflare: The Story So Far
A few months into a Red Team Security Internship at Cloudflare. Attacking production infrastructure, then working with the blue team to detect and fix what I found. On scale, building my own C2, and my first physical pentest.
How We Placed 3rd at the London AI Odyssey CTF 2026
Teaming up with strangers from different countries and backgrounds at the AI Odyssey CTF 2026 in London, and walking away with a 3rd-place finish.
Deploying my own website on a home server
Step-by-step guide to self-hosting a Next.js site on a Raspberry Pi with Nginx, SSL, and systemd. Learn how I deployed my portfolio on a £35 home server instead of paying for cloud hosting.
Supporting students as a computer lab assistant
How teaching network security and penetration testing to university students sharpened my ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences - essential skills for cybersecurity analysts who must communicate security decisions and act as ambassadors of security best practices.
Competing at the UK Cyber Leaders Challenge
A national incident response exercise: a cyberattack on two UK ports, a containment strategy built from partial intelligence, and ten minutes defending it under questioning from government and industry judges.
Installing Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi 5 and fixing HDMI issues
Installing Arch Linux on Raspberry Pi 5 isn't officially supported yet. Here's how I worked around U-Boot incompatibilities and fixed the HDMI display issue that left me with a booting system but no video output.
Achievements
Regional Math Olympiad Winner
1st Place
Achieved first place in the Regional Mathematics Olympiad, Odessa region, Ukraine. Demonstrated exceptional analytical thinking and problem-solving capabilities in competitive mathematics.
Regional IT Olympiad Winner
2nd Place
Secured second place in the Regional IT Olympiad, Odessa region, Ukraine. Showcased strong technical aptitude and computational thinking in competitive programming and computer science.
BSc Cyber Security
University of Roehampton
Graduated with a BSc in Cyber Security, demonstrating comprehensive understanding of security principles, threat analysis, and defensive strategies.
EJPT Certification
Junior Penetration Tester
Earned eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester certification, validating practical skills in penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and ethical hacking methodologies.
Certification ID: 140964497
Cyber Security Society
Founder & President (2023–2026)
Founded and led the Cyber Security Society at University of Roehampton, growing it to 30+ active members. Organized weekly sessions on penetration testing, security research, and knowledge sharing until handing over leadership upon graduating in 2026.
UK Cyber Leaders Challenge
Participant
Selected participant in the UK Cyber Leaders Challenge 2025, Cheltenham. Engaged in scenario-based competitions involving critical infrastructure breaches and strategic response planning from a government perspective.
Capture The Flag Winner
Multiple Victories
1st Place: Roehampton CTF
1st Place: Sheffield Siege CTF
2nd Place: HackTheBox CTF
3rd Place: AI Odyssey 2026, London
Consistently ranked at the top in competitive cybersecurity challenges, demonstrating advanced skills in penetration testing, reverse engineering, and exploit development.
Advanced Projects
Cybersecurity & Infrastructure
Developed multiple sophisticated security projects including business infrastructure assessment using ELK + Wazuh log analysis aligned with ISO 27001 and NIST CSF frameworks, a secure Node.js/Express + MySQL web application for penetration testing with SQLi, XSS, and CSRF vulnerability mitigation, and bootloader exploit analysis with bootkit identification and GPT integrity recovery.
Karate Practitioner
2nd Brown Belt (2nd Kyu)
Practiced karate for over 12 years, beginning in childhood and continuing with Chelsea Karate Club in London. Achieved second brown belt (one rank before black belt).
Contact
I'm always open to discussing opportunities, collaborations, research projects, or answering questions. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to connect.