We're the UAE's hands-on cybersecurity academy. Founded January 2025. Backed by the UAE Cyber Security Council and the CyberE71 program. Operator-led, ISO-accredited — training the country's next generation of defenders, analysts, and pen-testers.
Built by operators.
Trained 1,700+ in year one.
The UAE doesn't need
more lectures.
It needs capable hackers.
The talent gap is real. Universities graduate generalists. Vendors sell certifications nobody respects. Companies outsource to consultants who never touch a keyboard. Meanwhile, attackers are getting faster, cheaper, and bolder — and most defenders have never seen a real exploit chain in their lives.
We built Exploit3rs to fix that — for the UAE first. Story-driven, hands-on, isolated labs where students chain real techniques against real targets. Zero-click deployment so people focus on learning, not setup. ISO-accredited, government-aligned, operator-led.
In our first year we trained 1,700+ students, executed 12+ major events, ran advanced web pen-test bootcamps across 5 HCT campuses — and at GISEC Global 2025 we placed first out of 88 international cybersecurity companies in the North Star Pitch. That's not the finish line. That's the floor.
First place. Out of 88.
May 2025, Dubai World Trade Centre. We pitched against 88 international cybersecurity companies in front of investors, ministers, and the global press. Five months into existence. We took #1.
North Star Pitch
International cybersecurity startups
30+ countries · global judging panel
5 months after founding · Jan 2025 inception
"It wasn't just a moment of pride. It was years of work — proof that UAE youth can compete and lead, globally."
From a college club to GISEC #1 — in two years.
Every milestone below is on the record. The cadence has been brutal on purpose: each event is the next field-test of the same operator-led training model.
A 3rd and 4th-place finish that started everything.
At the Dubai World Police Summit CTF 2023, co-founder Omar Alowais placed 3rd and founder Juma Alshamsi placed 4th — their first major competitions. The result lit a fuse: the UAE had no formal pipeline for hands-on cybersecurity talent, and that gap was a problem worth fixing.
CTF Club, founded inside the college.
Juma Alshamsi established a Capture-The-Flag Club at his college as President, with co-founder Omar Alowais as Vice President. The first event drew seven participants. The methodology — story-driven, hands-on, isolated labs — got tested in the field.
Tri-Tech Cyber Showdown — three campuses, one arena.
Collaboration with RIT Dubai and Curtin Dubai produced the Tri-Tech Cyber Showdown CTF, expanding the format across institutions. First proof that the model scaled past one college.
500 participants. 2 days. The largest student-led hacking event in the UAE.
Hosted at Higher Colleges of Technology, the "Exploit3rs Largest Student-Led Hacking Event" pulled 500 participants across two days — workshops, sponsor sessions, and a skull-themed CTF arena designed, built, and run by the student team. Platform, challenges, infrastructure: all in-house. The event gave the company its name and proved the methodology at real scale.
Exploit3rs Cyber Security Academy goes live.
Official launch as a full-service cybersecurity training company. Story-driven labs, zero-click deployment, workshops, custom events. First 100 days: 5 HCT campuses, advanced web pen-test bootcamps, a roadmap built around UAE first.
First place. Out of 88.
At GISEC Global 2025 — the Middle East's largest cybersecurity summit — Exploit3rs won 1st place in the North Star Pitch competition, beating 88 international cybersecurity companies. Proof that UAE youth can compete and lead, globally.
A comprehensive academy. Backed by the country.
1,700+ students trained in year one. 12+ major events delivered. Supported by the UAE Cyber Security Council and the CyberE71 program. ISO 17024 · EIAC · ACTVET · NESA accredited. Building the operator pipeline the region's been missing.
Juma Alshamsi — Emirati founder, ethical hacker, builder.
Every line of the academy's curriculum traces back to one obsession: putting the UAE on the global cybersecurity map as a producer, not a consumer.
Juma Alshamsi · Founder & CEO
// TITLE · ENGINEERING
Lead Cyber Security Engineer
// SPECIALITIES
Red & Purple Team · Cloud · Forensics · AI
Juma Alshamsi
Juma Alshamsi's mission was never small: put the UAE at the front of global cybersecurity — not as a buyer of tools, but as a country that produces operators, innovates methodology, and teaches the next generation.
He works the full spectrum of the field. On the offensive side he's a red teamer and penetration tester; on defence, a certified forensics expert with hands-on blue- and purple-team experience. That range is rare — most practitioners pick a side. Juma built the academy precisely because he refuses to.
It's backed by an engineer's toolkit. He's an AWS cloud engineer who builds his own CI/CD pipelines, an automation specialist, and a full-stack developer — which is why the platform, the labs, and the zero-click challenge deployment are all in-house, not bought. Increasingly that work is AI-driven: he applies machine learning to scenario design and to the dossiers that match graduating talent to employers.
Juma Alshamsi started where most don't — in the trenches of college CTF competitions. A 4th-place finish at the Dubai World Police Summit CTF 2023 was the inflection point. He founded a CTF Club at his college, drew the first cohort, and ran the first event with seven participants. That was the prototype. What followed was deliberate scaling: Tri-Tech Cyber Showdown with RIT Dubai and Curtin Dubai, the Largest Student-Led Hacking Event, and on 1 January 2025, the company itself — full-service, accredited, built on the methodology he'd been field-testing for two years.
«بصفتي المؤسس والرئيس التنفيذي لشركة Exploit3rs، حلمي منذ اليوم الأول أن أضع اسم دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة في مقدمة الدول الرائدة في الأمن السيبراني — ليس فقط كمستهلكة للتقنيات، بل كقوة تصنع وتبتكر وتُعلّم. فوزنا بالمركز الأول في GISEC Global 2025، متفوقين على أكثر من 88 شركة أمن سيبراني عالمية، لم يكن مجرد لحظة فخر — بل كان دليلًا على أن شباب الإمارات قادر على المنافسة والريادة العالمية.»
"From day one, my dream as founder and CEO of Exploit3rs was to put the UAE at the forefront of global cybersecurity — not as a consumer of technology, but as a force that builds, innovates, and teaches. Winning 1st place at GISEC Global 2025, against 88 international cybersecurity companies, wasn't just a moment of pride — it was proof that UAE youth can compete and lead, globally."
Today, Juma Alshamsi leads Exploit3rs as CEO — owning the strategy, the direction, and the managerial weight of a growing company — yet he's never left the keyboard. He still designs challenges, runs the dungeon's hardest scenarios, and personally trains the senior cohort. That's the bet: the academy stays operator-led, not consultant-led. Always.
The operators in charge.
A small, founder-led team. Practitioners first, instructors second. The roster expands as the academy scales — every seat held for someone who's been on the ground, not in a slide deck.
Recognised at the highest levels of the country.
The work is real and the partners are real. We're backed by the UAE Cyber Security Council and selected for the CyberE71 program — the federal-government-backed accelerator for the country's most consequential cybersecurity companies.
Let's build your cyber capability.
Tell us about your team. We'll respond within one business day with a tailored brief.