Ibrahim Waziri Jr.
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| Ibrahim Waziri Jr. | |
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 Ibrahim Waziri Jr in 2026.png | |
| Born | Ibrahim Waziri Jr. |
| 🏫 Education | |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 🌐 Website | iwazirijr.com |
Ibrahim Waziri Jr. is an American-Nigerian cybersecurity professional, entrepreneur, and researcher. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Bitsfront, a cybersecurity company established in 2026. He previously worked in cybersecurity and security product roles at Microsoft[1] and Google Cloud. He has also taught cybersecurity at Marymount University[2] and participated in cybersecurity and research initiatives in the United States and Nigeria.[3]
Early life and education
Waziri was born in the United States and grew up in Bauchi, Nigeria. He earned a higher national diploma in electronics engineering with a focus on telecommunications from the Federal Polytechnic Bauchi in 2009. During his National Youth Service Corps service in 2010–2011, he worked as a network security engineer at the information technology office of a federal neuropsychiatric hospital.[3]
Waziri subsequently attended Georgia Southern University, where he earned a Master of Science in applied engineering, concentrating on network and virtualization security, in 2014. As a graduate assistant, he worked on a National Science Foundation funded project concerning the detection of hypervisor compromise in cloud infrastructure.[3]
In 2014, Waziri began doctoral studies in information security at Purdue University. His research included network security, cloud computing, virtualization security, and cloud firewall penetration testing. He completed his PhD in 2016.[3]
Career
Government and consulting
In 2015, Waziri interned as a cybersecurity analyst in the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the United States International Trade Commission.[4] From 2016 to 2018, he worked at Apogee Research, where he held cybersecurity and information-security engineering positions. He subsequently joined Deloitte's Government and Public Services practice as a senior cybersecurity engineer in 2018.[4]
Microsoft
Waziri joined Microsoft in 2020, working in governance, risk, and compliance engineering for Azure Government. His work included Microsoft's integration with the Defense Information Systems Agency's Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS).[4] From 2022 to 2024, he worked as a senior technical program manager in Microsoft's Azure Mission Engineering organization. In 2024, he moved to Microsoft's cybersecurity and trust organization, where he worked as a principal security product manager.[4][1]
In June 2025, Waziri joined Google Cloud as Global Insider Risk and Incident Governance Lead in the Cloud CISO organization.[Top 3][2] His work included insider-risk management and incident-governance programs. He left Google in July 2026.[5][6][4]
Bitsfront
In August 2026, Waziri founded Bitsfront, a cybersecurity company focused on threat intelligence and cyber governance. Mariojose Palma joined the company as co-founder and chief technology officer.[7]
Teaching and research
Waziri taught cybersecurity as an adjunct professor at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, from 2017 to 2024. His teaching included courses on cybersecurity risk management, security in the systems lifecycle, evolving technology infrastructure, computer security, and computer networking.[4][2][8]
He has published research and professional articles on cybersecurity, including work concerning phishing, secure human behavior, autonomous-vehicle governance, and cybersecurity and artificial-intelligence governance.[9][10]
Policy work
In 2025, New America selected Waziri as a fellow in its #ShareTheMicInCyber fellowship program.[11] His fellowship project focused on translating cybersecurity and regulatory requirements into formats that could be used by software engineering teams.[7] In a July 2025 op-ed for CyberScoop, he argued that a new White House cyber executive order was pushing federal agencies and vendors toward "rules as code", with policy written in formats that machines can check.[12]
The resulting project, GovSCH: An Open-Source Schema for Authoring Cybersecurity and AI Governance Documents, was published by New America in October 2025.[13] The project consists of machine-readable schemas intended to represent cybersecurity and AI-governance requirements.[7]
Waziri has also written about cybersecurity policy in Nigeria. In 2020, he contributed the chapter "Safeguarding Nigeria's Digital Development Efforts" to Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices, an essay collection edited by Chido Onumah. In April 2024[7], the Nigerian federal government appointed Waziri to the 20-member implementation committee of the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative, a committee established to support the digitization of health records and the protection of patient data.[14][15][16]
Selected Publications
- Waziri, Ibrahim. "Website Forgery: Understanding Phishing Attacks and Nontechnical Countermeasures." 2015 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Cyber Security and Cloud Computing, 2015.[9]
- Waziri, Ibrahim Jr. "Safeguarding Nigeria's Digital Development Efforts." In Chido Onumah (ed.), Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices, 2020.[7]
- Kohy, Babur; Warren D. Holston; Ibrahim Jr. Waziri. "The Dark Web and the Role of Secure Human Behaviors." ISACA Journal, 2021.[10]
- Stone, Clifton; Ibrahim Waziri. "Multi-Factor Obstacle Verification (MFOV): A cybersecurity and engineering approach to autonomous vehicles governance in smart cities." 2022 7th International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies, 2022.[17]
- Waziri, Ibrahim Jr. "New White House cyber executive order pushes rules as code." CyberScoop, 2025.[12]
- Waziri, Ibrahim Jr. GovSCH: An Open-Source Schema for Authoring Cybersecurity and AI Governance Documents. New America, 2025.[13][18]
- Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel and Ibrahim Waziri Jr. "The Death of Human Verification: Why Trust Must Move Beyond Detection." RSA Conference, 2026.[19]
Recognition
Waziri was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi honor society at Georgia Southern University in 2013.[7] He received the Daniel and Martina Lewis Graduate Assistantship Award from Purdue University's College of Technology in 2015.[7] In 2025, he was named a #ShareTheMicInCyber Fellow by New America.[11] In 2026, he was included in Georgia Southern University's 40 Under 40 class.[20][21]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Ibrahim Waziri Jr., Ph.D." Azure Government. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Admins, Marymount (2020-11-09). "Ibrahim Waziri Jr". Marymount University. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "From an HND in Bauchi to a PhD at Purdue: the education of Ibrahim Waziri Jr". NewsWireNGR. 2024-07-20. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "From US Govt Defense Contractor to Global Security Leadership: the career of Ibrahim Waziri Jr". NewsWireNGR. 2026-02-04. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ Fandi, Ayoub (2025-08-26). "🎙️ The GRC Engineering Blueprint for the Public Sector w/ Dr. Ibrahim Waziri Jr". The GRC Engineer. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ "The GRC Engineering Blueprint for the Public Sector w/ Dr. Ibrahim Waziri Jr. from Google". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 "Bitsfront and the idea behind it: rules that machines can read". NewsWireNGR. 2026-08-15. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ "Ibrahim Waziri Jr". RSAC Conference. 20250529T125055Z. Retrieved 2026-09-21. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ 9.0 9.1 Waziri, Ibrahim (2015-01-01). "1 Website Forgery : Understanding Phishing Attacks &".
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "2021 Volume 2 The Dark Web and the Role of Secure Human Behaviors". ISACA. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Announcing the 2025 #ShareTheMicInCyber Fellows". New America. 2026-09-22. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Otto, Greg (2025-07-14). "New White House cyber executive order pushes rules as code". CyberScoop. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "GovSCH: An Open-Source Schema for Authoring Cybersecurity and AI Governance Documents". New America. 2026-09-22. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ Anthony (2024-04-28). "Top cybersecurity expert, Dr. Ibrahim Waziri Jr, others appointed into FG's digital health committee". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ "Top Cybersecurity expert, Waziri Jr, others appointed into FG's Digital Health Committee - P.M. News". Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ [email protected] (2024-04-29). "Cybersecurity expert, Ibrahim Waziri Jr, others appointed into FG's Digital Health Committee". Vanguard News. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ Stone, Clifton; Waziri, Ibrahim (July 2022). "Multi-Factor Obstacle Verification (MFOV): A cybersecurity and engineering approach to autonomous vehicles governance in smart cities". 2022 7th International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies (SpliTech): 1–6. Bibcode:2022spli.conf..159S. doi:10.23919/SpliTech55088.2022.9854210.
- ↑ Jr, Ibrahim Waziri (2025). "GovSCH: An Open-Source Schema for Authoring Cybersecurity and AI Governance Documents".
- ↑ "The Death of Human Verification: Why Trust Must Move Beyond Detection". RSAC Conference. 20260825T124132Z. Retrieved 2026-09-21. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ "Ibrahim Waziri, Jr. ('14) - Georgia Southern University Alumni". 2026-08-03. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
- ↑ Connect, Grice (26 August 2026). "Georgia Southern announces 40 Under 40 Class of 2026". www.griceconnect.com. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
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