Sidharth M — Cybersecurity Resume

Cybersecurity professional pursuing BTech in CS&E (Cybersecurity) at VIT Chennai. Experienced in web application penetration testing (VAPT), network security, firewall hardening, and cloud-native threat research. Government-level security intern at Cyber Dome, Kerala Police. Published in 3 peer-reviewed journals & books. Vice Chair at ACM VIT Chennai. Proficient in OWASP Top 10, Burp Suite, Nessus, Nmap, Kali Linux, Docker, OPNsense, and CIS Benchmark compliance.

Education

2024 – 2028 Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Chennai

BTech — Computer Science & Engineering (Cybersecurity)

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Work Experience

May 2025 – Present Cyber Dome, Kerala Police

Kozhikode, Kerala, India · Government Cybersecurity Division

Community Volunteer – Aug 2025 – Present

Continued contributions to cybersecurity threat analysis, community security awareness programs, and operational security support.

Security Intern – May 2025 – Jul 2025 (3 months)

Performed phishing campaign analysis — mapped attacker TTPs, identified malicious infrastructure, and contributed to threat detection improvements.
Deployed and configured OPNsense next-generation firewalls; documented firewall rule bypass techniques for internal red-team research.
Supported red teaming exercises and network reconnaissance to identify security gaps.

2024 – Present ACM VIT Chennai

VIT Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Vice Chair – Oct 2025 – Present

Elected Vice Chair; lead chapter strategy, manage website security posture, and oversee technical operations for a 200+ member student tech community.

Membership Chair & Web Lead – 2024 – Oct 2025

Managed and hardened the ACM VIT Chennai website; led technical event operations and membership onboarding.

May – Jul 2025 VIT Chennai — SCOPE (SRIP 2025)

Research Intern

Supervisor: Dr. T. Subbulakshmi · VIT Chennai

Built a comprehensive cloud-native attack dataset and ML categorization model to classify cloud security threats.
Bridged threat intelligence with machine learning; research culminated in a peer-reviewed IJCNC publication.

Publications

2026 Analysis and Visualization of Cloud Native Attacks in a Secure Testbed

Subbulakshmi T, Adithyan P, Sidharth M, Arun Santhosh R A

International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications (IJCNC), Vol. 18, No. 2 · aircconline.com/ijcnc/V18N2/18226cnc06.pdf

Jul 2025 Setting Up A Security Testbed In Windows Using Docker

T. Subbulakshmi, Aditya Kushwaha, Sidharth M

Open Source For You (OSFY) Magazine · opensourceforu.com

Book Chapter Next Generation Firewall: A Comprehensive Analysis and Practical Applications

Brindha Subburaj, Subbulakshmi T, Sidharth M

IGI Global · igi-global.com/chapter/next-generation-firewall/395166

In-depth technical exploration of NGFW architectures, deep packet inspection, and enterprise deployment strategies.

Projects

2025 – 2026 CIS Benchmark Hardening Toolkit — Level 1

Docs: error-siddh.github.io/CIS-Benchmark-Hardening-Toolkit---L1/

Modular Bash toolkit implementing CIS Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Level 1 hardening across authentication, SSH, filesystem, kernel/network sysctl, logging, firewall (UFW + iptables), AppArmor, and sudo controls.
Firewall module implements defence-in-depth: SSH brute-force rate limiting, anti-spoofing (RFC 1918 drops), scan protection (NULL/XMAS/FIN/non-SYN drops), ICMP hardening, and strict outbound allowlist.
Compliance validator runs 73 CIS controls, generating PASS/FAIL/WARN HTML dashboard — achieved 73% compliance score (54 PASS) with auto-rollback on failure.
Technologies: Bash, UFW, iptables, auditd, rsyslog, AppArmor, Linux (Ubuntu 22.04).

2025 AEGIS ExamLab — Secure Proctored Exam Platform

GitHub: github.com/ERROR-SIDDH/AEGIS · Docs: error-siddh.github.io/AEGIS/ · Live: aegis-gules.vercel.app

Production-ready, open-source examination management platform built on Next.js 14 + MongoDB; deployed via Docker on Vercel.
Enforced 5-point server-side validation chain: PC approval → student mapping → exam assignment → status check → duplicate submission guard.
AI-powered question bank using Google Genkit (Gemini) — auto-classifies difficulty, generates semantic tags, supports LaTeX and code rendering.
Real-time PC telemetry: heartbeat polling every 15 seconds with liveStatus tracking (Online → Attempting → Finished); full admin audit logging.
Technologies: Next.js 14, TypeScript, MongoDB, Google Genkit, Docker, Tailwind CSS, Vercel.

2022 DDoS Visual Forensic Analysis

Docs: error-siddh.github.io/DDoS_Visual_Analysis/

Conducted comprehensive forensic analysis of a volumetric UDP flood attack (152k+ PPS) targeting a FiveM gameserver.
Stream-parsed and analyzed over 18.3 million packets from raw binary PCAP data using Python (`dpkt`).
Developed an automated data pipeline to compute traffic metrics, detect IP spoofing through TTL analysis, and perform geo-enrichment via MaxMind GeoLite2.
Created interactive visual synthesis using Plotly and Folium to map global botnet distribution, attack origin clusters, and temporal protocol shifts.
Technologies: Python, PCAP analysis, `dpkt`, MaxMind GeoLite2, Plotly, Folium.

2021 – 2022 Kidu Safe — Digital Safety & Content Filtering Platform

Developed a content filtering platform for safe online learning environments; reached advanced prototype stage with recognition for digital safety impact in educational settings.

Technical Skills

Security Disciplines: Web Application Penetration Testing (WAPT/VAPT), Network Penetration Testing, Red Teaming, Phishing Analysis, OSINT, Threat Detection, Threat Intelligence, Firewall Bypass, Network Reconnaissance, Attack Simulation, Zero Trust, CIS Benchmark Compliance, Linux Hardening, Information Security.

Professional Summary