Anand Prakash on cloud security startups and next-gen hacking

07/17/24 • 28 min

Anand Prakash on cloud security startups and next-gen hacking

Anand Prakash, founder of startup PingSafe, shares his insights on building a successful cybersecurity business and his experience as a top bug bounty hunter. He emphasizes the importance of fast execution, accountability and learning from mistakes when growing the company acquired by SentinelOne, where he’s now a senior director of product management.

In the latest episode of WE’RE IN!, Anand touches on India's prominence in global tech – particularly in security research and bug bounty programs – and he shares his personal journey into cybersecurity, which began with a curiosity about hacking at a young age in cyber cafes.

Listen to hear more about:

How bug bounty programs have evolved, with companies now more open to ethical hacking due to increased awareness of data breaches
The viability of government efforts to reduce entire classes of vulnerabilities like SQLi
If AI is effective in improving red teaming and bug bounty hunting

Anand Prakash on cloud security startups and next-gen hacking

Listen to hear more about:

How bug bounty programs have evolved, with companies now more open to ethical hacking due to increased awareness of data breaches
The viability of government efforts to reduce entire classes of vulnerabilities like SQLi
If AI is effective in improving red teaming and bug bounty hunting

Previous Episode

Ads Dawson on developing the OWASP Top 10 for Large Language Models

Ads Dawson, release lead and founding member for the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 for Large Language Model Applications project, has no shortage of opinions on securing generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and LLMs. With rapid adoption across the tech industry, GenAI and LLMs are dominating the conversation in the infosec community. But Ads says the security approach is similar to other attack vectors like APIs. First, you need to understand the context of AI-related vulnerabilities and how an attacker might approach hacking a particular AI model.

In the latest episode of WE’RE IN!, Ads talks about including threat modeling from the design phase when integrating GenAI into applications, and how he uses AI in his red teaming and application security work.

Listen to hear more about:

The misuse of AI, such as creating deep fakes for financial gain or manipulating powerful systems like the stock market

The role of governments in securing the AI space and the concept of “safe” AI

How the infosec community can contribute to OWASP frameworks

Next Episode

Michael Daniel on untangling cybersecurity’s complexity problem

Cybersecurity has a complexity problem. A tangled web of technical, psychological, economic and geopolitical factors enable and motivate malicious actors. Michael Daniel, CEO and president of the Cyber Threat Alliance, is helping public and private organizations decode these complex motivations with information sharing, including the Ransomware Task Force.

In this episode of WE’RE IN!, Michael elaborates on his "immune system" approach for the internet, a strategy where threats are quickly identified and neutralized. But this requires robust – and highly trusted – information sharing between groups.

Listen to hear more about:

The threat assessment for the 2024 Paris Olympics, highlighting potential threats from Russia and Azerbaijan
The need for more resilient software systems that can degrade gracefully rather than catastrophically fail
Michael’s thoughts on industry diversification and the value of different viewpoints in tackling cybersecurity challenges