Cybercrimes are the dark side of the cyberworld. As in physical crimes, the investigation is carried out by police; cyber police carry out cybercrime investigations. Like the physical investigation, a cybercrime case involves proof and evidence of the crime in the form of digital records or data.
However, this data or digital proof and evidence must be extracted from the digital and computer devices while following precise techniques and investigational procedures. The said procedures, techniques, and rules of investigating, preparing, and presenting the case in the court of law come under cyber forensics purview.
As cyber forensic science is a relatively new field, cyber forensics is the latest field in Indian cyberspace, and like forensic science, cyber forensics is also evolving alongside the technologies.
The professional space is now under constant attack from ever-advancing unorganized or organized groups of cybercriminals. Nowadays, in the corporate sector, data breaches and stealth, online data/info/records heists, identity theft, accounts hijacking, hacktivism, website defacements, DDoS attacks, ransomware, malware attacks, and other social media attacks are common.
However, carrying out advanced technological innovations and breakthroughs is not everybody’s cup of tea. Even the bravest minds find it hard to bear such a huge, critical and essential responsibility. This is where AKSIT Forensics has emerged as the leader who took this great responsibility and is continuously fulfilling it by simplifying how Digital Forensic investigations are carried out successfully.
AKSIT Forensics is a division of AKS IT Services Pvt Ltd, which is part of AKS Group. AKS Group is headed and led by veteran Wing Commander Ashish Kumar Saxena, Vishisht Seva Medal, Founder, and MD.
Wing Commander Comes to the Cyberworld’s Rescue
Ashish Kumar Saxena founded AKS IT Services Pvt Ltd in 2006. An Indian Air Force veteran, HBTI alumni, and also holds an M. Tech. in Computer Technology from IIT Delhi; CISSP, CISA, MBCI, ISO-27001 LA, Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers. He received Vishist Seva Medal from the President of India in 1994 for distinguished service in the Indian Air Force. He has held various appointments in Indian Air Force, including Chief Engineering Officer of a Flying Station and Joint Director (Information and Electronic Warfare) at Air HQ. He was also the first Operations Manager of CERT-In.
During his Initial years working as an Aeronautical engineer in Indian Air Force, he came across many circumstances where the need for innovation was felt necessary. Being an Electronic Warfare specialist, he worked on modifying imported systems and making them operational without any help from foreign engineers. To fulfil the need, he researched and found many solutions in the Information and Electronic warfare field. He was also instrumental in setting up Information Warfare Cell in IAF, which also deals in Digital Forensics. His conscious and subconscious mind was busy finding solutions to empower the Indian Air Force, and his subconscious mind was setting up a bigger goal for the future. The goal of establishing an organization that will empower the Law Enforcement Agencies, State and Central Police, Forensics Labs, and many more to handle, collect and analyze the Digital evidence so that the suspect cannot escape.
Finally, achieving that goal, AKSIT Forensics Division was established. Ashish Kumar Saxena shares, “After that, trained Delhi Police in Computer Forensics, and cybercrime investigation, established many Forensic Labs and provided AKS Forensic Workstations, Disk Forensic Tools, Mobile Forensic Tools, Email Forensic Tools, OSINT Tools, conducted Training for Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies.”
During the journey, AKSIT Forensics Division manufactured its indigenous AKS Forensic Workstation under Make-In-India. AKS Forensic Workstation is certified and tested by the Government of India’s organization CERT-In. True to its mission, AKS Forensics Division is fast emerging as the strong holder of worldwide trust. Mr. Aditya Baweja (Manager-Forensics & Cyber Security Products) adds, “We are the manufacturer of Indigenous AKS Forensic Workstation, which is essential for carrying out the major Forensics Investigations and running heavy Forensic tools and analyzing Big Data smoothly. Our organization analysts are professionally trained and hold international forensics certifications.”
Ashish Kumar Saxena reveals, “We have also received the CE certificate of Compliance.” These Forensic workstations are being used by almost all major Govt. organizations in India.
AKSIT Forensics Division is working on many indigenous products, which will be launched soon. “Currently, we are providing Comprehensive Digital Forensic solutions to Govt. organization. This makes us leaders in this field, ” says MD.
Providing a Secure Cyberworld to the Mankind
AKS Information Technology Services Pvt Ltd is a leading IT Security Services and Solutions provider company with over 8500 clients and empanelled with Govt of India, CERT-In, Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), State Bank of India, and many more. Our IT Security Test Lab is also certified by the Govt of India, STQC, for conducting an audit on eGovernance projects.
AKS IT Services provides a wide range of IT Security Services, including Web Application Security Auditing, Network Security Auditing, Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT), Testing & auditing of Industrial Control Systems and Telecom systems, Information Risk Management, GDPR compliance audit, Cyber Forensic examination and Cyber Crime Investigation, Information Security Training, Computer Security Incident Response Team (Design, Setup, and Training) and Security Operations Centre (Design and Implementation).
The company’s customers span across the industry sector from IT (Ericsson, Webel, TSTS, TNega. etc.), BFSI (SBI, PNB, Indian Bank, etc.), Telecom (SingTel, Airtel, Emerson, etc.), Energy (Power Grid, NTPC, NHPC, Tata Power, NPCL, Siemens, GE (T&D), etc.), Manufacturing (Mazgaon Dock, HAL, BHEL, BELetc.), Central & State Govt Departments and International (WHO, UNDP, etc.)
Bringing in the New Dawn through the Pandemic Night
From a business leadership perspective, speaking about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Cyber Forensic Industry, MD says, “Our organization was very well prepared for this kind of situation as it was there in our Business Continuity plans.”
At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was forced to work from home. Due to this, all the data was brought to the cloud. Many organizations did not have secure channels for data transmission and faced data leakage. Also, for banking and financial activities, almost every user switched to the internet and mobile banking, which made many unaware, naïve, and vulnerable users victims of financial attacks.
MD reveals, “After facing these constant financial attacks, data theft, and information loss, many clients approached us for the investigation, and we received many requests at that time. Our analysts performed the investigation and deployed the tools for investigation, giving them proper and successful outcomes with the help of local Police & Banks.”
Unbreakable Armour
AKSIT’s Cyber product development wing “ HaltDos” researched & developed DDoS Mitigation solution, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Application Delivery Controller, Server Load Balancer, Link Load Balancer, and complete security stack in the cloud, providing SAAS-based services like Anti DDoS, WAF, Anti bots, DNS Security, CDN. We have also received a Patent for DDoS Mitigation solution. All these products are developed on HaltDos platform which is EAL2+ certified by Govt of India, STQC.
HaltDos, is honoured with many awards like Cisco Launchpad Winner in Jan 2017, Top 10 Best Innovator Award by IIT Delhi 2017, DSCI Innovation Award 2016, Best Innovation Award in Singapore 2018, Express IT Innovation Award 2019, etc.
AKSIT was awarded Express IT- Best Innovator Award -MSME -2015 for development of AKS Forensic Workstation, National Technology Award 2020 under MSME category by Govt of India for “Successful Commercialization of AKS Forensic Workstation, HaltDos DDoS Mitigation and Web Application Firewall
Benchmarking of Cyber Security Products
AKS Forensic Workstation meets all the technical specifications of any international Forensic workstation. Performance wise, our Forensic Workstation is no less as compared to any Forensic workstation available globally. HaltDos DDoS Mitigation product using Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning for detecting malicious packets and it beats any on-prem DDoS solution across the globe.
AKS continues investing in research and development of Cyber Security Products towards making our country AtmaNirbhar. We would like to be a one-stop Cyber Security Partner for our customers.
Wings of Wisdom
Mr Ashish Saxena asserts that cyber security is a serious business. Knowledge in the cybersecurity domain and quality of service/product is paramount for success. There are no shortcuts in ensuring cybersecurity; minor slippage may lead to a disaster.
“In security, no one recognises you for the 99/100 attacks you mitigate. They only blame you for the 1/100 attack you couldn’t mitigate. That is why one has to give his 200% to hit 100/100 every single time.”
Securing the Cyberworld’s Future
Under the Wing Commander’s strong wings, AKS IT Services Pvt Ltd is on a new mission. The mission of making India AtmaNirbhar and a global leader in theCyber Security Product development, be it a Digital Forensics or Cyber Security Product.
