Sarad Thikkal

Throughout my career, I have contributed to impacting business outcomes through effective organization, prioritization, and execution of key projects.

Previously, in my Project Manager Cyber Security Role Cert-K (Govt of Kerala, India), I exercised a calculated and methodical approach to problem solving. I am independently motivated, yet I appreciate team efforts and collaborate productively within groups. Additionally, I am proficient in Vulnerability Assessment, Patch Management, Incident Response, Develop Controls and Frame work like NIST, ISO 27001 as well as proficiency in ZTNA,XDR, IPS and Firewall.

Because my professional goals align with Security Specialist and values, this opportunity is especially exciting. I believe my management; problem-solving and decision-making abilities will support and drive your continued organizational success.

From the moment my interest in cyber security spurred, I hold Industrial Certificate like ISO 27001/2013 LA and Certified Ethical Hacker, Cyber security and Cyber Forensic CDAC (Govt of India).

2023-06-14 - Till

 Sr. Cyber Security Solution Architect: Net Kera (Citsa Technologies Pvt Ltd)

Project: Netkera security systems like Firewall and XDR&SIEM solution,Trivandrum

Managed Project and initiatives throughout the entire project life, held full responsibility for project staffing,design, modeling and execution.

• Researching and Developing the Make -In-India Netkera security systems like Firewall and XDR&SIEM solution. Identifying Vulnerabilities and proposing appropriate solutions to enhance overall security posture.
• Acted as a lead Consultant in group projects. Assisted in establishing the overall technical vision and gave our team the knowledge of the technology stack they required to develop their solution.
• I constantly track performance in order to maintain the productivity of our team, improved the product by listening to ideas from the developers they oversee, advocating for innovative ideas, and finding paths to their implementation.
• coordinated with third-party vendors and client IT teams to seamlessly deliver effective solutions.
• Designed, implemented, configured and Expertise in NGFW (Netkera, Palo Alto, Fortinet & Sonic Wall) and XDR Solution (Palo Alto& Trend Micro). Used VAPT solutions to Customer site.

Technology Expert /Manager (CERT-K/VKC)

Kerala Sate IT Mission, Trivandrum 

• Acted as a team leader in Various projects, Managed (CERT-K ,Village Knowledge Centre,CPRCS and E-SMS) project delegating tasks and providing feedback. 
• provided consultation and technical services to Kerala government Departments on all aspects of information security and IT infrastructure. responsible for the development and responses to RFPs for government institutions and PSU's. 
• Collaborated with Cert-In,NCIIPC, and CyberSwachhta Kendra regarding the Incident response. 
• Conducted security audits (applications and infrastructure) to identify vulnerabilities for various Government departments. 
• used (SIEM,Tenable Nessus,NMAP,Open VAS,Burp Suit,Kali Linux) tools to evaluate, rate, and perform risk assessments on assets. 
• Reviewed violations of computer security procedures and developed mitigation plans. 
• Developed, tested, and implemented security policies, plans, and procedures (NIST, ISO 27001/2013) for organizational protection. 
• Educated and trained users on information security policies and procedures. 
• Technical leadership to acquire, evaluate, and implemented Vulnerability Assessment, XDR, NDR, NGFW, and ZTNA, SIEM, Core Switch, HCI solution, and wireless network for the Kerala Government Organization and State Data Center based on the PoC.
• Village Knowledge Centre, an outstanding unique project to use Digital Technologies and Internet-of-Things was planned to be implemented in Kerala (for paddy) and (for shrimp). Leveraging power of Technology and Data in Agriculture. Setup sensors in field and an IoT platform to get real time status for monitoring, control. Leverage Data Analytics to get actionable insights Create Village Knowledge Centers (VKCs).

Acciona Infrastructures/Agua (consortium),F1 RO Plant , Fujairah( UAE)

• Managed and Maintained RO plant IT Mini datacenter
• Managed the purchase and installation of networking equipment such as core switches, Access Points,NAS,Firewall, antivirus, High Performance server &Virtualizations.
• Planned and implemented effective disaster recovery and business continuity solutions.
• Monitored network activities to quickly detect and resolve operational and security issues.
• Installed and maintained commercial firewall solutions, SSL, and site-to-site VPN, working with security vendors to consistently apply best practices and software updates.
• used the Vulnerability Assessment tool to identify the vulnerability of SCADA infrastructure.
•  Used Sophos Antivirus solution and Patch Management solution

Network Engineer

Netwing Technologies, Kannur 

• Troubleshooted and maintained networking devices and infrastructure across the enterprise. 
• Installed firewalls and VPNs to increase and manage client network security. 
• maintained a thorough understanding of local and wide-area networking and components. 

B-Tech in Computer Science and Engineering