Dec 2022 – Jun 2023 · 6 mos · Columbia, Maryland, United States

• Spearheaded the development of a detailed blueprint for conducting binary analysis, collaborated with the team to effectively estimate project timelines, and successfully leading the project to ensure success.
• Responsible for reverse engineering our partner team’s Android and iOS applications and communicating findings to developers and higher management. This information was then used to incorporate anti-reverse-engineering protections into the mobile applications.

Dec 2021 – Dec 2022 · 1 yr · Columbia, Maryland, United States

• Evaluated a set of Windows binary features and clustering algorithms leading to the development of a ML-based Python clustering tool that exposed structural similarities between Windows malware. This helped prioritize analysis and creation of YARA rules for a malware subset for the greatest ROI.
• Researched multiple ELF header-based anti-analysis techniques that could be leveraged by threat actors. This research exposed multiple bugs in the product which were fixed and led to increased malware detection rate.
• Created an effective set of YARA rules capable of filtering out benign Windows PE and VBS files. This reduced the number of PE and VBS files analyzed by the malware sandbox; approximately by a factor of 3.
• Reversed and analyzed various x86 and x64 Windows and Linux malware to service escalation tickets, find patterns to aid in automation tools development and create YARA rules and malware sandbox heuristic scanners.

Jun 2020 – Dec 2021 · 1 yr 6 mos · Fulton, Maryland, United States

• Introduced a tool and associated unique malware detection signature capable of lossless transformation into other detection frameworks suitable for Cisco anti-malware products. This allowed analysts to create one signature instead of multiple for various detection products.
• Contributed significant code to the development of a Django-based tool which is an end-to-end pipeline for creating, testing, and deploying detection content for various Cisco anti-malware products.
• Engineered an extensible malware family-tracking framework leading to the automated creation of detection content for ClamAV, Snort and other Cisco anti-malware systems. The framework involved writing configuration extractors, databases for storing relevant information, C2-communication emulation client and IOC coverage-checking and creation code.
• Reversed and analyzed various x86 and x64 Windows, Android and Mach-O malware to service escalation tickets, assemble in-depth technical analysis reports for Cisco partners, find patterns to aid in automation tools development and create detection content.
• Author of the open-sourced C#-based Nibiru ransomware decryptor https://blogs.cisco.com/security/talos/nibiru-ransomware-decryptor
• Built a POC ML model (leveraging SVM, LDA) for statically classifying Linux binaries with a MCC score of 98.5.

Feb 2020 – May 2020 · 3 mos · Baltimore, Maryland Area

• Baltimore’s 2019 Technical.ly Awards - Startup of the Year: clean.io
• Examined Charles Web Proxy logs to capture and study malicious redirects via advertisements on publisher websites.
• Deobfuscated malicious JavaScript samples captured via redirects and documented their behavior to support Clean.io products and its clients.

Aug 2019 – Dec 2019 · 4 mos · United States

• Leveraged Maltego, theHarvester and other tools to develop and produce written intelligence reports using OSINT collected on terrorism (cyber and domestic) and APT groups.
• Deployed a honeypot based on the Modern Honeypot Network Framework and Dionaea to investigate potential threats through technical analysis and IOCs extracted from dropped malware.

Jul 2016 – Jul 2018 · 2 yrs

• NetApp is one the largest players in the Data Storage and Management industry with its flagship product, Data ONTAP.
• Analyzed test logs to detect bugs in ONTAP (flagship product) and test tools. Tracked tickets and bugs through ServiceNow and JIRA.
• Developed a Perl script to automatically upgrade firmware on Cisco UCS blade servers including migration and verification of provisioned virtual machines post upgrade.
• Implemented a neural network tool in Python capable of parsing test logs and classifying them based on test failure signatures with 100% accuracy.
• Improved efficiency of triage processes by up to 70% with development of automation tools in Python and Perl.
• Supported and documented the development of the NetApp Testing Environment framework in Python.

Jul 2016 – Jul 2018 · 2 yrs

• The NetApp University Relations (UR) team is responsible for hiring recent undergraduates and graduates from top universities across India.
• Enabled planning and implementation of innovative methods to attract the best talent from universities.
• Collaborated with NITK Surathkal to conduct the NetApp Tech Maestro Quiz, 2018.

May 2016 – Jul 2016 · 2 mos

• Gained an insight into the testing procedures of NetApp's flagship product, Data ONTAP.
• Developed automation tools in Perl to enable simplified testing processes for developers to comply with.

Jul 2015 – May 2016 · 10 mos · Mangalore Area, India

• Public engineering university consistently featuring in the top 20 engineering institutes in India
• Placement Coordinator for the Electronics and Communications Department.
• Collaborated with HR professionals from multi-national companies to organize their career fairs and screening examinations on-campus.
• Worked with the Career Services department to provide students with the best opportunities in the industry.

Jun 2014 – Jul 2014 · 1 mo · Bengaluru

• Tata Elxsi is a design company part of the TATA group providing design and technology services across broadcast, communications and automotive.
• Collaborated with team members to understand the design behind Tata Elxsi's WiMAX enabled Software-Defined Radio (SDR).
• Improved the performance of the SDR system by modifying the filters used in the Sampling Rate Converter (SRC).