HashWhales is a founder-led IT support and cybersecurity provider in Arlington, VA. When you hire us, you work directly with the team that manages your network, secures your systems, and builds your website — no account managers, no offshore handoffs.
At HashWhales, we manage the IT support, cybersecurity, and business technology that small and midsize companies depend on — networks, devices, backups, and security, plus the websites and software that run day to day. Our mission is to give businesses the reliability of an in-house IT department without the overhead: one accountable team, clear communication, and no jargon.
Founded in 2024 by Mustafa Aknan and headquartered in Arlington, VA, HashWhales has grown from a solo operation into a seven-person engineering team spanning backend, frontend, network engineering, and design — while keeping the standard it started with: hands-on healthcare IT experience in HIPAA-regulated environments and CompTIA Security+, Network+, and A+ certification, brought to every engagement from a small business's first website to a growing company's ongoing IT and security operations.
HashWhales is founder-led. The engineers below scope, build, and secure every project directly — no handoffs, no outsourcing. Call or text (571) 725-9944 and you reach the people doing the work.
Founder & Principal Consultant
CompTIA Security+, Network+, and A+ certified engineer with a B.S. in Information Science (Cybersecurity minor) from the University of Pittsburgh, plus hands-on healthcare IT experience in HIPAA-regulated environments. Leads the scoping, build, security, and maintenance of every client project — and works with clients in English, Arabic, Russian, and Ukrainian.
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Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Sets the technical architecture for client projects, runs code review across every active repo, and owns delivery timelines. B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh; background building production Spring Boot/React platforms and integrating AI-driven tools into engineering workflows.
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Senior Front-End Developer
Leads front-end architecture for Mykefi, HashWhales' SaaS platform for restaurant and local-service operations, and has shipped React interfaces for UPMC's Street Medicine program. Holds a Master's in Information Systems & AI from Johns Hopkins' Carey Business School (B.S. Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh).
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Backend Engineer
Background in Java/Spring Boot backend systems and AWS cloud architecture, including workflow integrations for enterprise banking systems and cloud-based forecasting platforms. Holds a Master's in Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence from Johns Hopkins (B.S. Computer Science, Shanghai University).
Front-End Developer & Integration
Full-stack developer with a background in Flutter, NestJS, and Unity, based in Ukraine. Handles front-end development and system integration across client projects. B.S. in Program Engineering, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Customer Support & Network Engineer
Network engineer and customer support lead. Interned at IBM in Frostburg, then spent four years (2020–2024) as a network engineer at Lockheed Martin. CompTIA Network+, AWS, and Cisco certified.
Designer & QA Tester
Designer and QA tester. Spent three years as a QA engineer at Vodafone, then earned a Master's in Information Science at George Mason University before joining HashWhales.
AML & Sanctions Compliance Specialist
Sanctions and AML specialist with 7+ years across KYC/EDD investigations, sanctions screening, and AML system implementation — including five end-to-end SAS transaction-monitoring rollouts and 350+ investigative reports for global clients at KPMG. Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS, 2019); LL.M. in Law and Economics from Central European University. With HashWhales since September 2025, leading the firm's AML and compliance advisory services.
LinkedInLong ago, sailors told stories of a world carried on the backs of vast creatures who held the balance of the seas. In the digital age, we carry that same responsibility for your enterprise.
The guardian of the depths. In an ocean where threats lurk as unseen predators, we harden your attack surface with glowing rigor. We ensure your data, secrets, and trust never drown in the abyss of vulnerability.
The architect of progress. We build cities of code upon bridges of logic and creativity. Singing in the language of high-performance algorithms, we give life to the applications and platforms that drive your heartbeat of innovation.
The connector of horizons. We weave streams of light into a vast net that binds shores together. Without this pillar, the others drift alone; with it, your whispered goals are heard and realized across the global digital landscape.
Battle-tested tools and frameworks powering enterprise solutions
Every system we build is hardened from day one — secure headers, dependency scanning, OWASP Top 10 remediation, and least-privilege access controls.
We optimize for Core Web Vitals, CDN delivery, and server response time — with sub-1.2s TTFB as the target we build against.
Fixed-scope quotes with no hidden fees. You see the full cost before work begins, and scope changes require written agreement.
Synthetic monitoring and uptime alerts watch your systems around the clock, with incident response runbooks and response expectations defined in writing for every plan.
Codebases are reviewed against the OWASP Top 10 before launch, with findings like injection flaws, broken auth, and XSS addressed before release.
CI/CD pipelines with blue-green deployments and automated rollback are designed so releases ship without scheduled maintenance windows.
Book a free technology audit and get an honest assessment of your security posture, performance gaps, and infrastructure risks — no sales pressure, no obligation.
