I am writing this blog to share my experience of SecurityXploded Mentorship  Programme to the upcoming students. My mentorship programme started last year in August when I was in 2nd year of MS at IIIT-Allahabad. I got to know  about SecurityXploded through my senior Mr. Sameer Patil. After go through its blog, training and security tool I decided to be a part of it. I want to get the practical exposer in info sec and got through this program.

In my selection interview with Amit Malik, I was asked lots of question related to exploits, basic assembly language, C concept and few from my previous work. After interview I realised that my basic concept was not good. My interview was average but one thing that I have realised that definitely this program will help to explore the Info Sec world and build a good and strong base for me.

In the programme curriculum, initially I was given assignments related to assembly language, python scripting, Window API programming and PE files. Solving the assignments was really helpful as my concepts got clear and I felt confident. Solving the tasks helped me to explore new things. The solutions need to be sent at the end of each week; hence we get enough time to complete the work considering the fact that we also have to manage our college studies simultaneously. My mentors also encouraged me to write blogs on SecurityXploded community website as it’s always a good habit to document whatever new things we come across in our research. My blogs can be accessed here

The final task that is most exciting part of the programme was to analyze a few malware samples. It’s the real challenging task because we have to apply all the things we have learnt previously to reverse engineer the malwares. Apart from malware analysis, one can also develop a new security tool or write a research paper related to infosec; but I didn’t go for it because I was already writing a research paper on Anonymity, privacy and security issues in Anonymous browser like TOR.

Throughout the programme, the mentors are always there to review our work, give suggestions and encourage us to work harder. We can ask them doubts by calling them in their free time or shooting a mail any time of the day! If we struck to something then my mentor help me to solve the problem through Skype with demonstration. So after the mentorship programme got finished in February, I had developed enough experience and practical exposure in areas like malware analysis, reverse engineering, python scripting, exploit research etc. This experience was also very beneficial for me during my campus recruitment in Protiviti Global as Associate Consultant. It is not just a program but is a relationship, bonding with security greek that are always ready for your help and support.

In the end, I would like to appreciate the SecurityXploded community for indulging in educating newbies and providing quality training to students at free of cost. I will advise all the students new in the field and who want to make a career and explore the info sec must take advantage of this opportunity.