Madhu Akula

Madhu Akula

Never Ending Learner!

Pragmatic Security Leader

Madhu Akula is a pragmatic security leader and creator of Kubernetes Goat, an intentionally vulnerable by design Kubernetes Cluster to learn and practice Kubernetes Security. Also published author and cloud native security architect with an extensive experience. Also he is an active member of the international security, devops and cloud native communities (null, DevSecOps, AllDayDevOps, AWS, CNCF, USENIX, OWASP, etc). Holds industry certifications like OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional), CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator), CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist), etc.

Madhu frequently speaks and runs training sessions at security events and conferences around the world including DEFCON (24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30), BlackHat (2018, 19, 21, 22 & 23), USENIX LISA (2018, 19 & 21), SANS Cloud Security Summit 2021 & 2022, O’Reilly Velocity EU 2019, GitHub Satellite 2020, Appsec EU (2018, 19 & 22), All Day DevOps (2016, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22), DevSecCon (London, Singapore, Boston), DevOpsDays India, c0c0n(2017, 18 & 20), Nullcon (2018, 19, 21 & 22), SACON, Serverless Summit, null and multiple others.

His research has identified vulnerabilities in over 200+ companies and organisations including; Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, eBay, AT&T, WordPress, NTOP and Adobe, etc and credited with multiple CVE’s, Acknowledgements and rewards. He is co-author of Security Automation with Ansible2 (ISBN-13: 978-1788394512), which is listed as a technical resource by Red Hat Ansible. He is the technical reviewer for Learn Kubernetes Security, Practical Ansible2 books by Packt Pub. Also won 1st prize for building Infrastructure Security Monitoring solution at InMobi flagship hackathon among 100+ engineering teams.

Interests
  • Engineering Leadership
  • Cloud Native Security
  • Cloud & Container Security
  • DevOps & DevSecOps
  • Building & Breaking stuff
Education
  • Information Technology

    ANITS, Andhra University

  • Electronics & Communications Engineering

    SVKP Polytechnic College

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Founder
Feb 2022 – Present Amsterdam, Netherlands
 
 
 
 
 
Product Security
Oct 2020 – Jun 2022 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Leading & building the product security engineering for a hyper-growth online collaborative whiteboard platform. Things happened at Miro since I joined 😊

  • 📈 8M users, and now we have 35M+
  • 🎉 Built and managed Cloud Native Security, Security Ambassadors teams
  • 💵 $76M Series B Funding to $476M Series C with $17.5B valuation
  • ❤️ Miro culture champion, helped to drive community, talent, tech branding
  • 🎯 99% of Fortune 500 are customers
  • 🎙 Did more than 80+ interviews at various levels across the organization
  • 🧑‍🏫 Shared my knowledge and research across multiple international conferences and communities
  • 👏 Headcount 500 to more than 1500
  • 🙌 Witnessed billions of requests scale and amazing culture
  • 🌍 5 hubs to 12 hubs around the globe
  • 🥳 New Logos, Customers, Integrations, Partnerships, etc.
 
 
 
 
 
Advisor
Stealth Startup
Sep 2020 – Oct 2021 Online
Research & Innovation, Technology Roadmap, Building awesome teams, culture & company
 
 
 
 
 
Cloud Native Security
Feb 2020 – Sep 2020 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Worked with wide variety of teams, clients and community to learn and share pragmatic security knowledge

  • Security Architecture, Engineering & Consulting
  • Cloud, Containers and Kubernetes security
  • Learning and sharing with the community
 
 
 
 
 
Security
May 2016 – Jan 2020 Bangalore, India

Joined as a 2nd member of the company. Read More

Appsecco is a specialist application security company that ‘gets’ web security and can advise you on the best route for your business.

We provide simple solutions to problems and don’t confuse our clients with technicalities.

Every team member shares a passion for providing the best possible security solutions that meet the commercial needs and challenges of the clients and organisations we work for.

No matter where they are based they bring the same strategic and pragmatic thinking to ensure that security, operations and commercial goals are aligned to bring you the best possible results.

 
 
 
 
 
Security Engineer II
Oct 2014 – May 2016 Bangalore, India

Joined as a 1st member in the Fortune 1 Network Security team in India and worked collaboratively with the USA team and other teams around the globe.

  1. Responsible for the global network security for Walmart eCommerce.
  2. Part of Incident Response team. Worked on Palo Alto, ASA, FWSM firewalls.
  3. Responsible for assessment of automation tools, latest trends to enhance the current security testing practices,update and enhance the standards used in organisation.
  4. Followed Agile-Scrum methodologies for deployment and development activities.
  5. Built an in house automation Attack Monitoring & Proactive Analytics solution for Walmart using ELK stack.
  6. Acknowledged by CISO, VP for my contribution in improving organisation’s security posture by providing Critical Vulnerabilities in applications and also for internal training among engineering teams in InfoSec.
  7. Won best organizational level awards including AOM (Associate Of the Month), Spot Award in entire InfoSec wing
 
 
 
 
 
Security Consultant
Oct 2013 – Oct 2014 Dharamshala, India
  1. Done Pen testing on complete Network as well as all Internal Web Applications
  2. Installed & Configured Active Directory, Domain controller services and applied Group Policy Management
  3. Installed & Configured Layer 2 & 3 switches and Routers
  4. Installed & Configured Open Source Monitoring Servers, Inventory and Ticketing Systems
  5. Installed & Configured FTP, BACKUP and WEB Servers
  6. Did hardening for Windows, LINUX servers & Networks
  7. Configured SIEM Server for Centralized logging and installed Security Onion for Network Packet Capture and analysis
  8. Trained staff for configuration and maintenance of servers and systems
  9. Researched on Real time Scenarios, Architectures and Tools
  10. Worked with various International clients and completed the project successfully
 
 
 
 
 
Internship
Saviour Info Sol Pvt.Ltd
May 2012 – Jun 2012 Hyderabad, India
Created a server with all security tools to monitor and analyze the network.
 
 
 
 
 
Information security researcher & Technical trainer - Part Time
Jan 2012 – Sep 2013 Hyderabad, India
  1. Trained more than 3000 people in the field of Information security, Ethical Hacking and Cyber Security by various workshops and talks.
  2. Done research on latest online potential threats and security tools and frameworks.
  3. Prepared course content for Networking & Security Modules.
 
 
 
 
 
Corporate trainer - Part Time
Jan 2012 – Apr 2013 Visakhapatnam, India
  1. Trained INDIAN NAVY for 10 days Hands on Ethical Hacking & Information Security Boot Camp
  2. Worked with various clients and done corporate training on Network Security & Forensics
  3. Done Penetration Testing for Web Applications
  4. Done Hardening Networks and Servers for small organizations

Volunteering

 
 
 
 
 
Snyk Ambassador
Jul 2022 – Present Online
Snyk Ambassadors are just as passionate about security as Snyk is — and they share their interest, expertise, and excitement within their communities to help other developers and engineers build secure software. - https://snyk.io/snyk-ambassadors
 
 
 
 
 
Community Builder
May 2021 – Present Online
The AWS Community Builders program offers technical resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to AWS enthusiasts and emerging thought leaders who are passionate about sharing knowledge and connecting with the technical community.
 
 
 
 
 
Mentor - Cloud Security
Jan 2021 – Present Online
Mentoring for the Cloud Security Study Group
 
 
 
 
 
Program Committee
Jan 2021 – Dec 2021 Online
USENIX LISA is the premier conference for operations professionals, where sysadmins, systems engineers, IT operations professionals, SRE practitioners, developers, IT managers, and academic researchers share real-world knowledge about designing, building, securing, and maintaining the critical systems of our interconnected world.
 
 
 
 
 
Mentor
Apr 2020 – Present Online
Resume & Career Clinic has been a great initiative at Nullcon, for the Candidates looking to progress their career in Information Security
 
 
 
 
 
Crew Member
Jun 2019 – Present Las Vegas, USA
Part of DEF CON villages in Las Vegas. An open space to meet folks interested in offensive and defensive aspects of cloud security. I was leading in creating and running the CTF for the conference.
 
 
 
 
 
Speakers Bureau Member
Nov 2018 – Nov 2021 World Wide
The CNCF Speakers Bureau helps connect event organizers with speakers who have varied expertise in the cloud native ecosystem. Speakers consist of CNCF ambassadors, meetup organizers, and prominent community members who are willing to speak at events on the topics they are proficient in.
 
 
 
 
 
Moderator - DevSecOps track
Jan 2016 – Present Online
All Day DevOps is a FREE online community responsible for creating the world’s largest DevOps conference. - https://www.alldaydevops.com
 
 
 
 
 
Contributor
Jan 2016 – Present Online
Security is everyone’s responsibility - http://www.devsecops.org
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter Lead
Mar 2014 – Oct 2014 Dharamshala, India
Kick started null Dharamshala Chapter monthly meetups and other types of meetings like null Humla and Puliya. Responsibilities include organizing monthly events, arranging venues, inviting speakers, etc.
 
 
 
 
 
Contributor
Jan 2014 – Aug 2015 Online

Code Vigilant project is created out of the need to have a more secure open source software. It is a known fact that a large number of users use opensource software but a very few of them contribute back in terms of identifying and making these opensource software a more secure piece of software.

This project is initiated with an aim of finding flaws in open source software and making sure that we reach one of the following conclusion.

  1. Get the vulnerability fixed and Patch issued.
  2. If author is not reachable then make sure the public information is available and spread the details that issues exist with opensource software and discourage its usage.
 
 
 
 
 
Crew Member
Oct 2013 – Oct 2014 India

Projects

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Cloud Native Security Playground

Cloud Native Security Playground. Coming soon!

Kubernetes Goat

The Kubernetes Goat designed to be intentionally vulnerable cluster environment to learn and practice Kubernetes security.

Hacker Container

Container with all the list of useful tools/commands while hacking Kubernetes Clusters

docker-security-checker

Dockerfile Security Checker using OPA Rego policies with Conftest

tools.tldr.run

Curated list of security tools for Hackers & Builders! https://tools.tldr.run

Attacking and Auditing Docker Containers and Kubernetes Clusters

Training course content on Attacking and Auditing Dockers Containers and Kubernetes Clusters

Breaking and Pwning Apps and Servers on AWS and Azure - Free Training Courseware and Labs

Course content, lab setup instructions and documentation of our very popular Breaking and Pwning Apps and Servers on AWS and Azure hands on training!

osint-viz-platform-reconvillage

Building visualisation platforms for OSINT data using open source solutions

Attacking & Auditing Docker Containers Using Open Source - DEF CON 26

This repository contains all the presentation, documentation and the virtual machine links for hands-on.

Hacked Emails

Command line utility for hacked-emails

Introduction to Containers

An Introduction to Containers using Docker and using it for Security Automation - null Bangalore Puliya

raneto-docker

Docker container for Markdown based Raneto Knowledgebase

Automated Infrastructure Security Monitoring & Defence

null Bangalore Public Bachaav 10 December 2016 Automated Infrastructure Security Monitoring & Defence

Defcon24 - Ninja Level Infrastructure Monitoring Workshop

This repository contains all the presentation, documentation and the configuration, sample logs, ansible playbook, customized dashboards and more for Defcon24 Workshop Contents : Ninja Level Infrastructure Monitoring.

Vulnerable Apps

Proof of concept applications which you can deploy using vagrant and ansible

Awesome DevSecOps

Training course content on Attacking and Auditing Dockers Containers and Kubernetes Clusters

Code Vigilant

Code Vigilant project is created out of the need to have a more secure open source software.

Docker Data Science ToolBox

Data Science Command Line Toolbox in a docker container

docker-datasploit

Docker container for datasploit framework

Markdown Automation

Automating Documentation, Presentation, Knowledge base using Markdown (Zero to Hero)

Security Automation with Ansible2

This repository contains all the code, playbooks, details regarding the book on Security Automation with Ansible2.

Windows CLI gems

wincmdfu project is for windows one line commands that make life easier, shortcuts and command line fu. This is combination of all tweets from @wincmdfu

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