For every good thing that exists in the world, there is a bad one to challenge it. In the era of the digital revolution, most business data processing, communications, transactions, and many more services are helping firms to run their operations by connecting systems to internet servers smoothly. Now the bad ones come into play, Cyber Crimes!
Piracy, network or system hacking, data stealing, spamming, and malware attacks are a few of the many evolving cybercrimes. These cybercrimes can cost enterprises enormously if they are able to breach the security setup. Here comes the saviour, Pyramid Cyber Security & Forensic (P) Ltd., a cyber security and forensic firm that provides next-generation Information Security, Digital Forensics, and Counter Fraud Management offerings. For more than a decade, the company has been providing expert solutions against cyber-crimes in India and internationally.
We got an opportunity to interview Pyramid’s Co-founder, Mr. Alok Gupta, to have detailed look at the company’s journey and its future directions.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
Give us a brief overview of your journey in the company.
Along with my brother Samir Gupta, I co-founded Pyramid Cyber a decade back in the niche space of Cyber Forensic. Since it was a unique and unchartered territory in India, the early days were challenging. The learning curve was steep, and getting all the ingredients to offer these specialized solutions and services required burning midnight oil and hard work. A lot of awareness and education was imparted to prospective customers before they could adopt our solutions and services. We trained and nurtured talent and forged partnerships with several international players. The journey has been quite satisfying. As pioneers in this field in India, we are proud to have created a new industry sub-segment, which has helped create employment and solved many problems for Law Enforcement Agencies and enterprises.
Tell us more about the Pyramid, its vision, and the key aspects of its stronghold in the Cyber Forensic Space.
Pyramid’s vision is to be a technology and services provider of choice known for its innovative solutions and world-class services in the Digital Forensics and Cyber Security space.
Cyber Forensics is a multi-disciplinary field with applications in Computer, Mobile, Cloud, social media, Audio Video, and Network Forensics. Today, we are proud to have set up close to 150 small to large cyber forensic labs/centers for various law enforcement agencies in India and East Africa and have trained more than 3000 officers/investigators on forensic investigation tools and techniques. Pyramid has also helped several enterprises investigate insider frauds, data breaches, and identity thefts. We have diversified into cyber security services and reported and addressed thousands of vulnerabilities for our customers as a managed security provider.
 From a business leadership perspective, what is your opinion on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Cyber Forensic Industry?
COVID-19 has changed how we work, live, play, and entertain ourselves. Work from home/anywhere is the new normal. That has opened a pandora’s box for hackers and perpetrators to comprise weak or unsecured networks, systems, and applications giving rise to data breaches and identity theft. Fear, greed, and lack of awareness have given rise to socially engineered frauds and cheating. Such events have forced the organizations to tighten their security posture and demand investigation, root cause analysis, and Cyber Forensics. As a result, both the cyber security and forensic industry have grown during the pandemic.
What efforts did you take during the pandemic to sustain operations and ensure the safety of your team at the same time?
During this pandemic, we followed Department of Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) guidelines for COVID-19, whether closing offices or COVID Safety protocols during in-office attendance. Fortunately, a large part of our work can be done remotely, and we encourage work from home/anywhere. Most of our solutions and services have been delivered using secured virtual private networks and robust cloud environments, causing the least disruptions in delivering services to our customers.
What is your opinion on the necessity for cyber forensic companies to align their offerings with technologies like AI and ML?
AI and ML are mainstream technologies today and have immense applications across domains. Cyber Security and Cyber Forensics have many benefits from leveraging AI and ML. Use cases range from predicting and minimizing cyber-attacks to reducing time to respond and investigate in case of an adverse event. Both supervised and unsupervised ML algorithms have been able to identify false positives quickly, enhancing productivity for security and forensic analysts and reducing time to respond and investigate.
As an established industry leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the Cyber Forensic Space?
When we entered the space, it was new and in the very early stages of its evolution. It was hard to find suitable talent and advanced technologies, but after about a decade, the industry is quite mature, and the solutions and services are high in demand. It’s a great area for new entrants. However, they need to develop their own USPs and differentiators to stand out and compete. I would be willing to mentor and guide budding talent and enthusiasts to succeed in this space.
How do you envision further strengthening your company’s stronghold in 2022 and beyond?
For Pyramid, we would like to expand our sphere of operations to other promising geographies where we see a growth potential and replicate the success we had so far. We would also like to expand our network of channel partners to grow revenues. As we advance, we would like to establish a research and development team that can help us develop products for the global markets.
