Mitigating False Alarms

Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran started his security career at Wipro as a consultant, working on red teaming. Chandrasekaran spearheaded a multifaceted initiative focused on cloud migration and streamlining digital security processes. “The project’s main focus was to incorporate security along the digital transformation journey which involved optimizing payment processing times and strengthening the system's security protocols,” Chandrasekaran says.

Chandrasekaran then moved to the United States to complete his master’s in computer science. “I was always curious about protecting systems and in the thrill of solving complex problems, staying ahead in the digital battlefield,” Chandrasekaran says.

Chandrasekaran then began working at Cloudfare as a senior engineer, aiding clients in improving their security posture. “I was responsible for leading and developing solutions for complicated attacks,” Chandrasekaran says.

Chandrasekaran would work with the engineering and operations teams to mitigate cyberattacks and implement protocols to prevent them in the future. This included tooling to trigger firewall rules and reviewing alert tickets to ensure they’re reaching the correct departments. “I would review the latest alerts to determine relevancy and urgency,” Chandrasekaran says.

Currently, Chandrasekaran works as the Senior Technical Engineer at Intuit. “My current role involves architecting systems to implement and enforce security controls with an all-around focus on regulatory compliance, legal adherence to all data the organization holds,” Chandrasekaran says.

At Intuit, Chandrasekaran found that there were several different audit systems across the organization. “This caused confusion and excessive manual effort because data was stored in different systems such as drives, cloud storage solutions to name a few,” Sekar says. They were then tasked with developing an “evidence storage system” that is utilized by both internal and external audit stakeholders for storage. The system is scalable, allowing various monitoring requirements to better understand the gaps found in audits. “The result was a unified evidence storage system that resulted in centralized audit collection with a streamlined process to reference evidence at a later stages of an audit. With the system in place, more than 3600 hours of manual work was saved and internal business segments were able to stay within compliance,” Sekar says.

Chandrasekaran’s mentorship style is described as “supportive and hands-on”. “I believe in guiding rather than dictating, providing mentees with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to solve problems independently,” Chandrasekaran says. He encourages open and continuous communication to foster a welcoming environment in the workplace. “I also focus on real-world applications and practical experience to help mentees bridge the gap between theory and practice. Ultimately, my goal is to empower mentees to reach their full potential while developing their own problem-solving approach,” Chandrasekaran says.

Chandrasekaran’s career has shown a commitment to innovation, working to ensure no details are missed within a security strategy. His background in computer science provided the necessary skills to secure critical systems to prevent future cyberattacks. Chandrasekaran’s commitment goes beyond the workplace, where he serves as a judge in cybersecurity events and mentors upcoming students within the community.