My Ambitions to Build a Career in Information Technology

Right from my childhood I am fascinated towards technology whichever communicates each other. Being a kid, I loved playing with the telephone lines in my home and unwittingly listen to my cousin” discussions with the help of Two-line phone. At that time, Information flow from one end to another, using a device seemed straight out of a fiction movie in my hallucination. By the time I reached my high school, cordless phones and mobile phones started to make their mark en masse. This readily available new wave of technology piled into me. More interestingly the blend of communication and information technology in the devices always intrigued me.

I completed my schooling from Sri.K.G.S HSS wherein my core subjects included computer science and physics introduced me gaining the fundamental basic concepts into computing and information technology in today’s perspective. This aspect in schooling made me to voluntarily provide my name to an industrial visit to BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) organized by my school. I spent two days in the industrial visit which catalyzed my desire towards wireless communication technology even more. This incipient interest on communication and the desire on technology deeply engraved me to do undergraduate program in Electronics and Communication Engineering.

With better high school grade, I joined bachelor degree in B.S. Abdur Rahman University to carry out my childhood vision. I wholeheartedly believe that my college provided me with the best possible undergraduate education coupled with numerous exposures on fundamental concepts of Networking and importance of maintaining confidentiality and integrity while communicating data’s. I found subjects such as computer and wireless networking, data structures and its algorithms were appealing during my undergraduate. In my third year, for the departmental symposium, I developed a project titled “Network Interrupt and Packet Manipulation” using Wireshark and other free proxy tools. It was greatly appreciated by my college faculty members, students, and external examiners. During my final year, I did a simulation project based on virtual private networks titled “Dynamic TCP-IP/MPLS-based VPN over Broadband Dense Wave Division Multiplexer Ring.” This project was eventually presented as an IEEE paper in the “Tenth International Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications Networks WOCN2013-Bhopal, INDIA”; this experience provided me the opportunity to collaborate and share knowledge with some of the best minds in the industry.

Given my sound academic knowledge, I was recruited by iNautix Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (a Bank of New York Mellon subsidiary) as an Information Security Analyst. I worked there for three years. Post that, I moved on to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) with the same designation. Since both companies are part of the financial sector, securing data was of the utmost importance. Therefore, in order to keep myself abreast with the latest advancement in information security, I completed two well-recognized certificate courses called “Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)” and “Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)”.

My four years of experience as an information security analyst educated me great deal about application penetration testing, static code analysis, handling clients, and dealing with complex situations in a sensitive manner. Although I have learnt a lot on the job, I believe that there is still a need to improve on my current skill sets to take my career to the next level. A formal education in network and systems security as well as keeping in-tune with the current advancements of technology globally will equip me with the demands of this industry. This realization has prompted me to continue my academic pursuits after being away from a formal academic setting for quite some time.

Information Security in India is still at its nascent stages. Large amounts of data are being utilized by companies in India for various functions of day-to-day business. It is vital to protect this information from the public domain. This necessitates the need for such study. However, not many educational institutions in India offer the aforesaid expertise, which has prompted me to look for options overseas.

Canada has the reputation for having some of the best institutions for information security. Studying in a richly diverse environment of Canada will allow me the opportunity to interact and network with students from different countries and cultures. Therefore, I have chosen Canada as the place to pursue my master’s degree. To fulfill my dreams and ambitions, I am eagerly looking forward to be a part of the post-graduate program.

From the various educational institutions in Canada, I zeroed down to the University of Concordia. I believe curriculum of Concordia would groom and widen my skills on all aspects pertaining to informational security. I committed myself full time to prepare for what this curriculum entails and I look forward to learn about the intricate nature of (and work alongside my peers on) topics like Crypto-Protocol and Network Security.

Post completion of my Masters, I wish to shine myself as a Security Architect. Though my short-term goal is to explore the other areas in security domain where I haven’t had a chance to work, my long-term goal obviously is to establish a RedTeam Security based firm in my country.