Vinod’s workshops and training sessions are unique and are more than just another discourse on cybersecurity. They entail teaching cybersecurity as a basic component of one’s life, and rightly so, as our world sheds a part of its physical shell every day, slowly transcending into a digital one. Vinod understands the importance of teaching cybersecurity as he quotes that “the wars of the future will be fought between computers.” His training sessions are built upon years and years of his learning, countless trials, and failures, his experience in overcoming those failures, and succeeding at being a renowned ethical hacker.

Vinod’s onsite cybersecurity training sessions are full of interesting examples, live demonstrations, rare insights. They are custom-designed for his audience. His training programs are accommodated to incorporate current trends in cybersecurity and case studies ranging from targeted corporate hacks, government-aided hacks, to unprecedented public mishaps. He is popular for his approach in teaching the student from “the other side of the desk”, that is, the student’s perspective. He nudges a person’s inquisitiveness, which enables them to develop a greater affinity for cybersecurity and persuades them to learn more about the fascinating world digital locks and keys – binary ones that secure their online activity.

Vinod provides his cybersecurity training to some of the leading institutions in the country like the,

• National Institute of Technology, Surat
• Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
• College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai
• PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, etc.

His toughest subject was math. He had 23 arrears in college. But that did not stop him from pursuing what he loved. Vinod believes that with a little bit of training, hard work, and a lot of determination, one can achieve any feat that they so desire.

Vinod wanted to become a hacker since he was 16 years old. His academics were not so great and he had a lot to hear from his professors in college because of his poor performance. But his 23 arrears did not seem to faze him one bit because he always knew what he wanted to do, what he had to do – that is to become an ethical hacker.

The road wasn’t always easy to walk on though. Vinod completed his college and earned a degree by clearing every one of his arrears in the 8^th semester. He was offered a job in a well known MNC, Infosys, and was well into his 3^rd month of the job when he was told that “he did not qualify to be an employee”, the reason being that he hadn’t cleared his arrears in the 7^th semester – a very odd criterion for dismissing a candidate whom they hired months ago.

This inevitably was a blow to Vinod’s spirits but it didn’t burn him out. If at all, it only rekindled his passion for doing the things that he loved. True to one of his favourite quotes,

“I love watching the waves, not because they rise and fall. It’s because every time they fall, they never fail to rise.”

…vinod got up stronger. He worked at various companies before settling in Symantec of the Norton Anti-Virus fame for close to two years. That’s where he conceived the idea of training students in cybersecurity.