Digital transformation has influenced the business working of most companies. Modern software applications have greatly contributed to increasing efficiency, accountability, control, decision-making, minimizing costs, and saving process time. With many business functions happening through online resources, there rises a considerable risk of cyber threats through virus attacks, spam ware, and malware attacks that can potentially damage the business working through data theft, data corruption, and system failure.
Progressive and alert business organizations anticipate the threats and plan their security provisions by installing the latest firewalls and robust anti-virus systems. However, executing the complete IT security solutions could be a challenging task for the internal IT teams. It is often the preferred decision to outsource the complete IT security requirements to professional expert companies who identify the business structure and offer proper customized solutions for the entire business enterprise.
Proaxis Solutions has been offering the security needs of several organizations by providing systematic and tailor-made solutions for fortifying and strengthening business environments. Headquartered in the Karnataka state capital of Bangalore, Proaxis Solutions is guided by an innovative technology expert, Senthil Kumar CS, the Chief Operating Officer, who has created an IT solutions company that specializes in cyber security and cyber forensics.
In an avid interview with the CIOLOOK India team, Senthil Kumar unraveled the important glimpses of his professional venture, initial inspirations, challenges countered, the uniqueness of the organization, and his advice to the young professionals.
Senthil Kumar, please describe Proaxis Solutions in detail.
We are a cybersecurity and forensics compliance service provider. Our firm was incorporated as “Proaxis Scitech Private Limited” under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs; we are registered as an MSME with the Government of India. We have also been recognized as a start-up under the Government of India – Startup Initiative, and Government of Karnataka under the Department of Electronics, IT, BT, and S and T. One among the ten most promising cyber forensics service providers – 2019 (by Silicon India), ISO 9001:2015 for Quality Management and ISO 17025:2017 for Testing Calibration are few of our credentials. Our core areas of expertise, to name a few, are digital forensics, cyber security, multimedia forensics, document forensics, corporate fraud investigations, risk mitigation, field investigations, and much more. Our services are being offered to a wide range of clientele that encompasses the corporate, healthcare, manufacturing industries, insurance, banks / financial institutions, judiciary, law enforcement, etc.
Our assistance would be of value to our clientele during any phase of business operations wherein the cyber security perspective while setting up their basic network and IT infrastructure as per recognized ISO security standards, conducting ISO security audits if an architecture exists, devising appropriate strategies for sound information and cyber security within the organization as per the existing resources, source code audits on any existing in-house platforms and finally providing end to end managed security operation center assistance remotely. During the case of any incidents like cyber-attacks, data breaches, insider data theft, ransomware, etc., our team would immediately provide prompt assistance through our Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) Team and thoroughly investigate the chain of events to ascertain the cause of the occurred incident. Also, provide appropriate remediation measures to curb any of such similar incidents.
From a forensics perspective, apart from digital and cyber forensics, we also offer a few more conventional investigative services pertaining to the examination and authentication of multimedia content (audio, video, and image) obtained as evidence. Our investigative approach is a combination of individual expertise and the usage of industry-specific tools researched and designed for the purpose of the investigation by law enforcement, Interpol, and national investigation agencies. Our investigation reports can also be submitted as a supportive legal record before any judiciary across the country. Following this, we also offer services with reference to the scrutiny of documents with contents/signatures/thumb impressions having any discrepancy, and the same must be proven and submitted before the judiciary. As cited above in multimedia forensics, our examination reports furnished through any Document Forensics investigation hold good as a legal record under Section 45 of the India Evidence Act.
In a nutshell, our association with our clients is something valuable for the business that keeps them safeguarded around the clock from any incident that might cause distress to their routine management or functional operations.
Brief us about yourself and shed some light on your professional tenure.
Being one of the founders of the organization and holding the designation of Chief Operating Officer, I have an overall experience of seven years in the field of forensics and specializing in digital and cyber forensics, multimedia forensics, and corporate fraud investigations. During my professional tenure, I have handled around 200 cases and tendered evidence as a domain expert before competent authorities like the judiciary and corporate internal investigation teams.
What are the USPs that make you stand out as a leading Disaster Recovery Management service and solutions company?
No matter what kind of incident occurs within your organization, our team of domain experts/consultants and advisors have the expertise to provide an effective solution to remediate the constraint that has been affecting the routine operations of the business.
Our team is comprised of multifaceted experts from healthcare, insurance, banking, corporate, information and cyber security, judiciary, and law enforcement, with a combined experience of more than 250 years. Our solutions are specifically tailored and provided to each clientele as per their existing phase of business, right from the inception of information and cyber security architecture to execution and maintenance of deployed resources. We always travel throughout with our clients by securing their entire business online and holding hands during their hour of need.
Our teams are divided into two vectors, one dedicated team who handles the scope of ensuring maximum safety in the client’s network infrastructure (on-premises or cloud data) through continuous monitoring for any ongoing threats (round the clock, 24x7x365 days). The other handles the entire scope of incident response in case of any attack /disaster that has obstructed the functioning of the business, investigating the root cause behind the incident through the chain of events that occurred and reporting the same. This team also assists in providing appropriate remediation measures to prevent any of such similar incidents in the future.
Proaxis Solutions offers professional and affordable services to clients exclusively pertaining to the level of expertise and effort involved in each engagement, not through a fixed fee model. We always strive towards a continuing business relationship with our clients no matter the size of the organization.
What were the initial challenges after venturing into the field, and what are the challenges now?
We had incorporated our firm during the pre-pandemic, wherein during these times hardly a very few of our sectors of clientele and even the common audience had no clue regarding the service we offer, and the technical aspects were too far to be understood. During the initial days, our approach towards each sector of the clientele had to be through first providing awareness that such a service domain exists in the market and such scope of services can be utilized by all sectors of business and finally throwing some light upon the importance of utilizing our services. Due to our field being a very niche domain, various clients had different perceptions regarding the acceptability of this service.
Mainly due to the nature of our business having to deal with sensitive information regarding their organization like employee details, financials, network architecture, access to all servers/firewalls, business strategies, and much more. Sometimes if required, during certain incidents/cases, personal information regarding the client must also be shared. Due to all such hiccups gaining the trust factor with the client was the core challenge, and sustaining the same was another huge task. Our entire journey to date has been the same, wherein times have now completely changed after the onset of the pandemic; everyone has been witnessing the exponential rise in cybercrimes and other disasters resulting in huge loss of data as well as financial loss to the corporate and government sectors.
Concept awareness has started to emerge within all the business sectors and the public, and because of this transition, several businesses offering a similar scope of services have begun to penetrate the market. Though large preferences are available to clients today, the expectation of service standards has also transformed, and the key challenge to stay competitive has begun, especially post-pandemic.
Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how technology is transforming the industry and what advancements can we expect in the future.
Technology has always been a two-sided spear; it totally depends on how we handle it. During the initial days, the use of technology was restricted to specific industries due to various factors like availability, cost, technical expertise, etc. Now that the scenario has completely changed, technology has inserted itself into every possible business vertical and engages with the progress of business on a routine basis. In today’s market, the most evolved industry is the one that has adopted technology to the maximum extent. The use of technology at the right phase has experienced enormous business growth both in terms of productivity and finance.
The advancement in technology is always happening due to the nature of demand in every sector, and this exponential growth phase will always happen and will streamline to an extent. Similarly, innovation in incorporating new technologies into new business verticals will also keep effectively progressing with no hindrances, no matter the state of the market.
As an experienced professional, what would you like to advise the budding aspirants willing to enter the business world?
Choosing a career in disaster recovery management is always a way ahead challenging compared to other job profiles. Each situation confronts us like a challenge that has no looking back, even if a small error or mistake is committed. Different hats must be worn during each phase of the incident/disaster investigation. Always staying vigilant and updated regarding the different trends happening in the field is the key theory behind sustaining ourselves as successful disaster recovery management professionals. Proving facts regarding the engagement and always staying firm about the same keeps us more credible before the client and any competent authority.
How do you envision scaling Proaxis Solutions in the future?
Right from the year of incorporating our company, each year, we have either been evolving our scope of services by venturing into a new domain or bringing technological advancements into our existing service. We envision our company to be a full-fledged tech-based cyber security and forensics service provider for any mission and any industry – extra small businesses (start-ups) to huge businesses.
