Meet Raed Ahsan | Youngest ethical hacker of Pakistan and KSA | World Renowned speaker on cybersecurity.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Raed Ahsan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Raed, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind my success was “discipline”. I knew it when I was 15 years old (the time when I started working on my passion) that motivation wasn’t going to last long and the only thing that was necessary for me to stay on track was consistency and discipline. 4 years of hard work, without distractions, has led me to become the best version of myself, and will continue to grind harder to know more of what I’m capable of. I became the youngest ethical hacker and cyber expert of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia at the age of 18 and have also become a world-renowned public speaker on cybersecurity and ethical hacking by speaking at several conferences including government-held congresses as well. By not giving up for 4 years despite the many hardships that I faced during this journey, I’m now at a stage of my life where I believe that success doesn’t come from motivation, it comes from discipline. By earning several certifications in this industry over the past 4 years, I’ve also gained work experience at this age by working for organizations based in KSA, UAE, and the USA.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I started working on my passion in 2020, I was just 15 years old. At that time, I used to work 12 hours a day with no rest just to make this decision the best decision of my life and make myself the best version of myself. There were several hardships I faced during the start of my journey, example – people stopping me from chasing my passion due to rumors of hacking being a negative industry and full of crimes, getting tied up on routines due to academic studies, negative talks on my physique as I wasn’t paying much attention on myself. But, I took all those comments, converted them into a positive focus for me, ghosted everyone for 1 year straight, and came back with being the best version of myself. Hard work really pays off! All you need is some years of hard work and then, a lifetime of freedom! I started earning several certificates from authorities and started focusing on myself as well by hitting the gym which made me much stronger mentally. My first decision of a “yes” or “no” of one of the biggest conferences was a really confusing and yet frightening one as I had a stage-fright in me. But all I thought was that this decision could change my life forever, and I accepted the invitation from BlackHat 2022 MEA for the first time. It all continued from there where I started applying for more events in Dubai as well. And now, I’m being invited by several events and conferences to perform live-demonstrations of ethical hacking as it really captivates that audiences and helps them gain an in-depth knowledge of how the technology is evolving and how hackers are getting sophisticated along with it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The complete credit behind my success goes to my parents and my sister who always kept pushing me and keeping me consistent on my track of cybersecurity time when I started learning in this field, many rumors about hackers having the risk to lives were spread and this industry was just evolving at that time. Due to this, many people wanted to me leave this passion of mine and stay in my academic learning phase. It was 2020 (the time of COVID) when everything went online as well as studies. I noticed that there wasn’t much interaction or attention in it toward students, so I decided to focus more on my passion for ethical hacking. My parents and my sister always told me to focus on what I’m interested in and what makes me happy. It was my aim from the beginning to make my parents proud of me and not take this decision of mine as a regret. Now, I’ve achieved so much in my life, earned respect, and become a public personality in the industry of cybersecurity and ethical hacking by speaking at several big-tech conferences and events, being featured on news channels and articles, and also achieving my leadership award in 2023 for my outstanding contributions to the field of technology and security at such a young age. There’s more to come in the upcoming years!

Instagram: https://instagram.com/raed.ahsan

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/raed-ahsan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaedAhsan

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXIyXPyrzt3YOxgkdEDpuA

Image Credits
BlackHat, tahaluf, QNA, IDC, GISEC, CyberNEXT, ibento group