BOOTCAMPS EMERGING AS WAY TO LEARN NEW SKILLS
4
YouTube, developer websites like
GitHub, and online courses are
the most popular ways to learn
coding among Gen Z. They are
also more likely than any previous
generation to learn coding skills
from bootcamps. The most
commonly attended bootcamps
globally are Codeworks,
AppAcademy, Hack Reactor,
Coderhouse and Byte Academy
Work-from-home opens many
new doors for cyber criminals
Zoom’s issues got
lots of attention,
but there are
several other
vulnerable areas
Akhil George, Swati Rathor
& Habeeba Salim | TNN
O
ver the last month, major
cybersecurity firms, tech
giants like Google and
Microsoft, and govern-
ment law enforcement
agencies like the FBI have all
sounded the alarm on the massive
spike in cyber attacks across the
globe amid the coronavirus pan-
demic. With most of the world
working from home, and remote
working platforms gaining unprec-
edented traction, the sudden in-
crease in malicious attacks is no
surprise, say cybersecurity firms.
Video-conferencing platform
Zoom in particular has come under
scrutiny. As the number of its daily
users surged from 10 million to 200
million in a matter of weeks, cyber-
criminals were quick to spot and
exploit vulnerabilities. John Shier,
senior security adviser at Sophos,
a British IT security company, said
the platform is meant to be extreme-
ly easy to use, which often means
trade-offs with security and privacy.
Trade-offs included simple ways
for people to join meetings. But this
resulted in what has been described
as ‘Zoombombing’, where uninvited
participants broke into and dis-
rupted meetings. Zoom has since
introduced virtual waiting rooms
that prevent people from joining a
meeting until the host is ready, and
passwords to join meetings as a
standard feature. It has also imple-
mented other measures, and Shier
says these have made Zoom ses-
sions more secure and private.
A Zoom spokesperson told TOI
Massive response
to IIT Mandi’s data
science course
Avik.Das1@timesgroup.com
T
he phrase `data is the new oil’
has now become cliched. But
aspiring engineers can start
their careers with a degree in the
subject, and it does offer endless op-
portunities.
Prof Timothy Gonsalves, director
at IIT Mandi, says data is changing
every field. Engineering designs, he
says, used to be based on equations.
But these will in future be based on
data science, he says.
“Let us take an example of de-
signing a bridge. One needs to have
beams and girdles which are strong
enough to bear the weight of the
traffic and the force of wind. In the
past, we had equations to decide the
dimensions of the beams and gir-
dles. Now when they are construct-
ed, there are sensors throughout
which collect data on the load of the
bridge and the deflection,” Gon-
salves explains.
HEAR THE PROF
Thus, how a bridge behaves in
real time is available to designers,
which now makes them rely on data
rather than equations. “This is the
shift from equation-driven designing
to data design engineering,” he says.
The subject has become exciting
because of the availability of tonnes
of data on every aspect of human
life. Machines increasingly have sen-
sors to collect data. “There are sen-
sors in vehicles and jet engines col-
lecting data and making it available
in the cloud. A decade back, a sensor
used to cost several lakhs of rupees,
now it is available for a few thou-
sands, and in the future the price will
come down further. Building on this
data is the new field of data science
which is an offshoot of computer sci-
ence, statistics and mathematics,”
Gonsalves says.
The professor admits that just
like in any other engineering college,
computer science continues to re-
main the most sought after course
even at IIT Mandi. However, with the
world talking and walking AI, ML
and predictive maintenance, the in-
stitute introduced a BTech degree in
data science last year. The response
has been overwhelming, the director
71.0 HOW DO YOU LEARN NEW CODING SKILLS?
61.1
Gen Z Millennial
51.6
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34.7
32.9
YouTube HackerRank
WATCH OUT
Employees are creating new
routines as they work from home.
By leveraging security technology to
identify baseline behavioural habits of
employees, you can help secure both
employees and critical business data that
attackers are looking to exploit
during these unprecedented
times. By identifying
anomalous behaviour in real
time, organisations can stop
breaches before they
happen, while enabling
productive WFH
Carl Leonard |
PRINCIPAL SECURITY
ANALYST, FORCEPOINT
Integration of multifactor
authentication protocols,
implementing screen locks, encryption of
devices that transmit data to and from the
servers and in case of theft, and enforcing
tighter controls over home network
security through use of VPNs
are key features that a
comprehensive security
solution must incorporate.
Cloud makes these apt for
large scale implementation at
a rapid rate
Balaji Subramaniam |
HEAD, CYBERSECURITY, NTT
that a large number of global in-
stitutions have done exhaustive
security reviews of their user,
network and data centre layers
and continue to use Zoom for most
or all of their unified communica-
tions needs. Its customers include
Walmart, HSBC, Deloitte, 21st
Century Fox, and LinkedIn.
George Kurtz, CEO and co-
founder of CrowdStrike, a US-
based cybersecurity firm, says
companies are struggling with
their existing end-point security
solutions because they are trying
to update them through their VPNs,
which just blows up their VPN with
traffic. He also says that traditional
Engineering designs,
like when building a
bridge, used to be based on
equations. In future, they will
be based on data science,
using data collected
through sensors
Timothy Gonsalves |
DIRECTOR, IIT MANDI
says. The institute also plans to start
a similar degree in mathematics.
Data analytics and AI fields have
applications in almost every area,
including agriculture, industry,
medical science, climate change
studies, finance and commerce. IIT
Mandi has three core courses in
data science for all seven branches
of BTech.
Golsalves advises students not to
put a full stop to academics at the
completion of graduation. “Upon
graduation, if a student is not clear
about their career, s/he can do an MS
in IIT Mandi or other IITs. This in-
cludes a research-oriented thesis.
The MS degree prepares a student
for either a PhD or a good job as a
design engineer in industry,” he says.
Many students prefer an industry
job after graduation. This brings the
excitement of working on products
and technologies that are immedi-
ately useful to large numbers of peo-
ple. After a few years in an industry
job, some students go for higher stud-
ies in order to gain greater depth in
their field. “I would advise a PhD for
those interested in an academic ca-
reer, either teaching and research. It
is today essential for an assistant
professor in any good university,”
Gonsalves says.
Gen X Baby Boomer
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Coding Bootcamps Peers or Mentors
Video recording feature should be
disallowed when you are using any
app for web meetings. Don’t just leave the
chatroom when a meeting is over, shut it
by clicking on the close button. Always
disable the join feature so that other
unwanted people cannot access the
meeting. The file transfer
feature too should be
disabled, because
many of the
applications allow
background file transfer
Vikash Chaudhary | FOUNDER,
HACKERSERA CYBER SECURITY
CONSULTANCY
anti-virus software and firewalls
are antiquated technology, but
that’s what many firms still use.
Newer cloud-based solutions and
artificial intelligence solutions, he
says, offer better protection.
Vulnerabilities in remote work-
ing platforms are only part of the
problem. Google blocked more
than 18 million malware and
phishing emails related to Covid-19
in just a week.
Emails have been weaponised,
says Venkat Krishnapur, VP of en-
gineering and MD, McAfee India.
McAfee’s advanced threat research
team looked at the different sectors
being targeted and found health-
NETAPP’S ECO-FRIENDLY ALL-STEEL BUILDING
NetApp India’s Bengaluru
campus, inaugurated in 2017 and
which hosts its biggest R&D
centre in the world, has been
awarded the highest green
building rating – the Indian
Green Building Council’s
Platinum certification
It’s one of the first all-steel
IT’S
buildings in India, built with 7,000 EARTH
metric tonnes of nearly 100% DAY TODAY
recyclable steel
Optimises energy usage,
creating carbon savings of over
12,000 tonnes per year, the
amount of CO2 that would require
583,333 mature trees to consume
Has achieved electricity
savings of 3 million units/year
through measures like efficient
lighting, efficient HVAC systems,
and an efficient building envelope
Never saw myself as a woman in the industry
Ardra.Shankar@timesgroup.com
W
hen Rupa Santosh grad-
uated high school in
Bengaluru in the early
90s, she was expected to pursue
a medical degree, like most wom-
en at that time. It’s the age-old
stereotype of relating technolo-
gy to men and more ‘feminine’
roles to women, she says. Much
to her parents’ surprise, Rupa,
decided to pursue engineering.
“Initially, they weren’t happy
with the decision. But they even-
tually came around to the fact
that this is what I’m passionate
about,” she says.
She completed BE in electron-
ics and communications engi-
neering in 1994 around the same
76.
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59.3
Developer Websites Online Courses
Source: 2020 HackerRank Developer Skills Report; insights based on 116,648 developers
Patch early,
patch often.
Ransomware like
WannaCry and NotPetya
relied on unpatched
vulnerabilities to spread
around the globe. And
make
regular
backups
John
Shier |
SENIOR
SECURITY
ADVISER,
SOPHOS
care bearing the brunt of it.
Scammers have taken advantage of
the shortage in medical equipment
like PPE and hand sanitisers to try
and get people to click on malicious
links. Banking & finance and edu-
cation were the next two sectors
most hit. “Governments all over the
world have announced various re-
lief packages for their citizens, and
scammers now routinely send
emails pretending to be govern-
ment agencies asking for bank ac-
count details to deposit money,”
Krishnapur says.
Students stuck at home and
learning online, he says, are an-
other huge vulnerability, with
Has a 116 KW solar plant on the
terrace that generates 165,000
units of electricity/year
100% of the wastewater is treated and
the recycled water is used for the green
landscaped area and air-conditioning.
No water is added to the public drain
INSPIRATION
time that Bengaluru was evolv-
ing into a global tech hub, and
joined Siemens Communications
Software as an engineer. The role
further cemented her interest in
technology, she says.
Over the next two decades,
she ventured into the telecom
industry, working with big com-
panies like Samsung and Nokia.
In April last year, she joined data
management firm NetApp’s Ben-
galuru office as the senior direc-
tor of software engineering. She
leads a team of over 200 engi-
neers across Bengaluru and Sun-
nyvale, working on products in
the area of data protection and
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On-the-job Training Books
malicious emails being tailor-
made for them to click on. Schools
around the world are also seen to
be circumventing cybersecurity
protocols they may have imple-
mented in the rush to offer e-learn-
ing solutions to students. In the US
in 2017, there was a spate of at-
tacks on school IT systems to ob-
tain student information, which
were then used to contact, extort
and threaten students with physi-
cal violence and release of their
personal information. Many are
worried about a repeat of that now.
Sudhir Naidu, CEO and founder
of Troop Messenger, a Hyderabad-
based startup that develops collabo-
ration solutions, says small and
mid-level enterprises are another
vulnerable segment, because they
go for convenience and low-cost solu-
tions. He says there are affordable
solutions from smaller cybersecu-
rity firms that SMEs can use.
Cybersecurity talent demand surges
The sudden surge in cyber attacks
has increased the demand for cy-
bersecurity professionals. Sunil C,
head of specialised staffing at
TeamLease Digital, says 20% of
the overall demand from their cus-
tomers is now for cybersecurity
professionals, compared to 13%
before Covid-19. The salaries for
cyber professionals, he says, were
high even in the pre-Covid days,
but now, with the demand increas-
ing, organisations are willing to
pay 10-20% higher salaries.
Rakesh Kharwal, MD for India
& Asean region at Cyberbit, says
companies should train their cy-
bersecurity teams using cyber
range, a virtual environment that
companies can use for cyber war-
fare training and software develop-
ment. “It has a positive impact on
everything from raising the indi-
vidual skill of a professional to
improving the overall coordina-
tion of the team. After all, the
more you sweat in training, the
less you bleed in battle.”
It’s a lead-free campus. Uses
the rotating flywheel technology
UPS, instead of a battery-
powered UPS combined with a
diesel-generator. It’s more energy
efficient, has a longer technical
lifetime, and no chemical waste
since no batteries are used
management, including Snap-
Center and Unified Manager.
“We’re also looking at leveraging
artificial intelligence and ma-
chine learning technologies in
key areas of data protection,”
she says.
At Nokia, Rupa was the head
of the Bengaluru R&D centre,
one of the largest centres for the
company that contributed to key
product development in the tel-
ecom network, including innova-
tions in 5G networks, cloud and
virtualisation. The centre won
various internal awards and rec-
ognition for innovation under
her leadership.
Rupa believes as a leader it’s
important to look beyond your
set of responsibilities and in-
TECH I’D LIKE TO SEE
Deciphering the AI Black Box
A common recurring de-
mand is of explainability in
AI. AI systems have shown tre-
mendous results over the past
few years in voice analytics to
natural language processing,
however, we still don’t com-
pletely understand how these
systems work. It is still an
experimental science. As
businesses are growing
complex, intercon-
nected and bigger all
around the world, the
need for explainable
AI is rising. The idea is
to look into the black
box and understand
the way neural
networks
behave.
Ashish Airon | CO-FOUNDER, COGNITENSOR
For first time ever,
freshers’ first day
at work is at home
Swati Rathor &
Swati Bharadwaj | TNN
H
ad it not been for the cor-
onavirus lockdown, Har-
simrat Singh, who gradu-
ated this year in BTech in com-
puter science from BML Munjal
University, Gurgaon, and land-
ed a job as a software engineer
at ServiceNow, would have per-
sonalised his office desk by
now. “I would also have made
full use of all the in-house fa-
cilities like the gym, game
room, and the cricket pitch,”
says Singh.
For the first time ever, lakhs
of freshers joining the tech in-
dustry would be spending their
first day at work at home. And
freshers and companies are
finding ways to make it look at
least partly like the real thing.
LOCKDOWN TRENDS
For Rashleen Arora, who
interned with US-based finan-
cial services player Arcesium’s
Hyderabad tech centre last
year, bagging an offer from the
company was a dream come
true. But with everyone now
working from home, her dream
of getting a red carpet welcome
at office, like she had seen the
2019 batch get, was dashed. “I
was disappointed I would be
missing out on all the fun and
pampering,” she says.
But she was pleasantly sur-
prised by her smooth virtual
onboarding this month. Arcesi-
um blocked a calendar for each
fresher for the welcome. From
the first day, they started receiv-
ing communication about vari-
ous things, including download-
ing software. “All our seniors
were very accessible, we had
interactive sessions with the top
management. One of my delight-
ful moments was getting to break
the ice with the country head
over drinks, thanks to the Barc-
esium virtual ice-breaker ses-
sion where all freshers logged on
to BlueJeans and sipped drinks
as we had an informal chat with
the top boss,” gushes Rashleen,
who is hopeful that the formal
office welcome at office will still
happen one day.
Sovan M, who is set to join
an MNC IT firm in the first
In lockdown, most of
us are now spending
our days glued to our chairs,
working long hours. I felt very
tired the first week. Now I’ve
started walking during phone
calls, which helps
take the edge
off the stress
Rupa Santosh
| SENIOR DIRECTOR,
SOFTWARE
ENGINEERING,
NETAPP
spire others around you. “I have
always tried to promote innova-
tion, diversity and engineering
excellence in the workplace,” she
Since privacy concerns related
to technology have escalated
in the recent past, regulations
are becoming stringent. There
is an increasing demand for
transparency across all kinds
of solutions, including AI. Con-
sequently, explainable AI can
help reduce risks of regulatory
and reputational account-
ability. There’s tremen-
dous work happening
in optimisation, making
AI systems better and
faster, and networks
that consume less. The
next wave will bring
more R&D techniques
that result in a better
understanding of
the black box.
Arcesium freshers interact
virtually with company’s India
managing director Ranvijay
Lamba (bottom right)
week of May in Pune, says
while he is excited to join the
company, a WFH would mean
he will be spared anxious mo-
ments of checking whether all
certificates/documents are in
place umpteen number of times
before the day of joining. He
also chuckles that thanks to the
lockdown, he won’t be forced by
his parents to visit a temple
before joining work.
Many tech companies are
digitally onboarding freshers
and HR departments have been
rolling out new engagement
programmes to make freshers
‘feel at office’.
Capgemini has launched a
buddy program, where the new
hire is assigned an employee of
the same business unit as ‘bud-
dy’ who can help the new joinee
for the first few months with
general queries that are not re-
lated to work deliverables.
Suresh Bethavandu, global
head of talent acquisition at
Cognizant, says they have pub-
lished standard operating pro-
cedures to enable new hires to
work remotely and access
learning and skilling material
via the internet. “We have well-
established mentoring process-
es to aid and guide these new
graduates,” he says.
ServiceNow says team heads
and HR have been reaching out
to the freshers prior to onboard-
ing to provide an overview of
the way teams are functioning
remotely in the current situa-
tion. There are also initiatives
such as ‘Coffee Connect’, where
ServiceNow senior leadership
connects with freshers for open
conversations and share ideas,
and ‘Ice breaker’ sessions,
where team members catch-up
with the freshers to discuss ran-
domly chosen topics.
says. In the 90s, Rupa was among
the few women engineers in the
R&D field. Today, she is among
the few women in leadership po-
sitions in the tech industry. “I’ve
never been too conscious of the
fact that I’m a woman in the in-
dustry,” she says. “But I believe
that it’s important to promote
equality in the workplace and
provide opportunities, regard-
less of gender.”
On managing her time be-
tween work and household
chores during the lockdown,
Rupa, who lives with her
husband and elderly in-laws,
says division of labour has
made things easier. “We have
decided who does what, so it’s
easy to balance.”