- Elvin deSouza - A Summary
- Work Experience
- Certifications and Accreditations
- Education
- Projects
- Community and Leadership
- My Technical Skills and Proficiencies
- Soft Skills and Language Skills
- Awards and Recognition
- View my Work
A brief, one-page resume is available in .pdf format here
Elvin deSouza - A Summary
Research Assistant in the Research Group for System and Network Security(SNS) of the Institute for Information Systems at Hof University of Applied Sciences
I like programming, cybersecurity, and linux.
I have a strong work ethic, with good teamwork and exceptional communication skills
I am also an avid programmer, with extensive problem solving skills and using programming patterns. Passionate computer engineer with a focus on application security and secure coding. Leveraging a solid foundation in GNU/Linux system administration and internals. Adept at crafting elegant solutions through programming skills and keen problem-solving acumen. Experienced in collaborating within dynamic team environments, driven by exceptional communication and teamwork abilities.
Proven track record of contributing to research projects under professors, and student clubs. Diligent, enthusiastic, and committed to upholding the highest work ethic.
Work Experience
Research Assistant in the Research Group for System and Network Security (SNS) of the Institute for Information Systems at Hochschule Hof
October 2023-Now
Hof, Germany
The “Multi-modal Human-machine Interface with AI” project aims to develop such new interfaces with AI. In order to solve the data protection problems, novel onion routing methods are being researched to obscure the metadata and thus ensure maximum data protection. This project will further investigate some of the issues with Tor, particularly how end-to-end congestion control techniques affect the speed of onion routing.
- Investigating the implications of the cross-circuit interference (CCI) problem in the latest version of the Tor client, which includes end-to-end congestion control integration
- Comparing various proposed solutions to mitigate the CCI problem in Shadow.
Work performed under Prof. Dr. Florian Adamsky and professionally supervised by Mr. Sebastian Pahl.
Web Engineer at Converge-Collegepond
July-Oct 2022
Mumbai, India
- Created and maintained web pages for the website built with WordPress
- Designed forms, implemented them on the website, parsed form responses, and aggregated data
- Increased traffic by monitoring SEO and making changes to SEO-related parameters
- Optimizing pages for load time, mobile viewing, and accessibility
- Revamping the website’s frontend CSS and other styling
- Worked on various frontend and backend projects, including Linux server troubleshooting and administration
Certifications and Accreditations
CompTIA Security+ Certification
Ensures that I have the security problem-solving skills required to:
- Assess the security posture of an enterprise environment and recommend and implement appropriate security solutions
- Monitor and secure hybrid environments, including cloud, mobile, and IoT
- Operate with an awareness of applicable laws and policies, including principles of governance, risk, and compliance
- Identify, analyze, and respond to security events and incidents
Certificate and Verification Code
AWS Academy Cloud Foundations
AWS Academy Cloud Foundations is provides an overall understanding of cloud computing concepts, independent of specific technical roles. It provides a detailed overview of cloud concepts, AWS core services, security, architecture, pricing, and support.
CCNA: Introduction to Networking
This course introduces the architecture, structure, functions, components, and models of the Internet and other computer networks.
CyberOps Associate
CyberOps Associate v1.0 covers knowledge and skills needed to successfully handle the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of an associate-level Security Analyst working in a Security Operations Center (SOC).
LinkedIn Learning Certifications
You can view them on my LinkedIn profile
List of certificates here
Education
Computer Science/Informatik - International Exchange Student
Hochschule Hof University of Applied Sciences
Hof, Bavaria, Germany
Feb 2023-Oct 2023
Took up the following courses-
- 11.1.1.1 CCNA - Introduction to Networks
- 11.1.2 CCNA - CyberSecurity Operations
- 11.5 Cloud Computing
- 11.3.5 Information System Security
- Project Work
- Deutsch als Fremdsprache: A2.1
- Deutsch als Fremdsprache: B1.1
Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering in association with IBM ( BTech. CE )
Vishwakarma University
Pune, India
Aug 2020-Jul 2024
Final CGPA 8.86/10, 83.28%, A+ grade - Rank 33 in merit list
Relevant Courses
Degree Specialization : Cybersecurity
- Application Security CS03SG01
- Computer networking BTECHCS18503
- Database Management Systems BTECHCS18403
- Information Security Fundamentals-IBM COD0001392
- Information Technology Systems Security and Physical Security BTECHCS18410
- Operating Systems BTECHCS18501
- Project Management BTECHCS18514
- Technological Skill Development-III (Python) BTECHCS18407
- Web Technologies BTECHCS18508
Higher Secondary School Certificate
Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education
Rasiklal M. Dhariwal Junior College
Pune, India
FEB 2020
79.85%
- Stream : Science
- Selection : Physics+Chemistry+Maths
Secondary School Certificate
Maharashtra State Board of Secondary & Higher Secondary Education
St. Vincent’s High School
Pune, India
MAR 2018
89.80%
Projects
Can Johnny Encrypt E-Mails on Smartphones?
Research under Prof. Dr. Florian Adamsky of the Institute for Information Systems at Hof University – Encryption and signing of e-mails using S/MIME and OpenPGP on smartphones
Lost In Translation
Project under Prof. Dr. Florian Adamsky of the Institute for Information Systems at Hof University- Exploiting automatic website translations (through phishing websites) using homoglyph attacks
AutOSINT
Done as part of major project during Bachelors degree
A graphical user interface to automate OSINT/information gathering and reconnaissance
Made use of APIs to generate results
Documentation generated using Sphinx
Small Network Hardening
Hardened a small network by installing network security measures, and setting them up keeping in mind the services available on the network. Removed unnecessary services and applications, and audited user and service accounts on the systems. Reserved IP addresses manually, set up whitelists, and made other configurations to make the network more secure.
Small Network Penetration Testing
Conducting a Network Penetration Test on a Small Network. Followed all the standard steps of a penetration test in accordance with applicable standards and guidelines, and documented the process.
GPG-GUI
Simple graphical front-end to GnuPG, making encryption accessible to everyone!
Utility of the kexec Linux system call.
Documenting how a physical attack can be carried out by (mis)using the kexec system call to boot into another kernel(operating system) from a kernel, and perform an attack with scripting in a more familiar environment
Community and Leadership
Tech Department and Project Department Lead at the Revolution Software Development Club
June 2021-Jan 2023
- Spread knowledge of industry-standard technology by organizing hackathons, workshops, projects and webinars
- Conducted research on bleeding edge tooling, and worked on projects involving the same
- Increased community outreach as a Content Strategist by writing in-depth technical pieces
Webinar - Introduction to Debugging by Revolution SDC
- Session on how to resolve bugs using the scientific method and using the VSCode debugger.
- I came up with the idea, conceptualized and designed the structure of the webinar and composed the speaking points covered in each chapter and live demonstrations performed by the other participants.
- I was the main presenter for the webinar and was the driving force behind its execution.
Previous position: Tech Assistant, letter of appreciation
My Technical Skills and Proficiencies
I have experience in application programming and application security.
Python
- scripting and automation, using the standard library(with re , shutil, os, pathlib,etc.) along with the plethora of amazing libraries available like pytest,selenium,requests
- web development with Django, database APIs(MySQL,SQLite)
- secure Python development using unit tests, running code linters, type checkers on projects to check for undetected issues, security tools like Prospector and Bandit to find vulnerabilities and possible flaws
- extensible module/library development following the PEP8 python style guide, conforming to the guidelines on project structure and layout, naming conventions, docstrings, type hints, commit messages, etc.
GNU/Linux
- Scripting/command-line, security, architecture, administration, etc. and have gained expertise of the fundamentals like filesystem layout, permissions, conventions, etc. along with experience with popular software, good practices, and bash scripting.
- I am also familiar with the coreutils/Unix-style(philisophy) programming, and have learnt the skills of system management, security, scripting, containers, automation, and troubleshooting
- I also have experience in setting up and maintaining webservers like apache and nginx. Related skills here include setting up services in accodance with available benchmarks (www/ permissions, symlinks, updates-patches-maintenance, configuration files, managing and rotating logs)
Information Security
I hold the Comptia Security+
I have experience with the following vulnerability assessment and penetration testing tools/frameworks-
- Burp Suite, Nessus, OWASP ZAP, nikto, openVAS
- Metasploit
- sqlmap
- lynis
- wfuzz
- theharvester
- nmap
- hping3
- Wireshark
- john, hydra, hashcat
Please explore the Security section of the website to see what topics/tooling I have experience/interest in.
Other Technical Skills
- Git
- LaTeX, Markdown
- SSH
- virtualization, Docker
- Applying Data Structures and Algorithms
Soft Skills and Language Skills
- communication skills
- strong work ethic
- problem solving
- enthusiastic learner
- analytical thinking
- teamwork skills
- critical thinking
English
-
Level C2(fluent/advanced) on the CEFR
-
IELTS Band 8.5 overall (8.5 Listening, 8.5 Reading, 8.0 Writing, 8.0 Speaking)
German
- Level B1 on the CEFR
Awards and Recognition
- Received recognition from RVDP, NCIIPC for reporting several vulnerabilities in government infrastructure
- ‘Code Wars 2023’ IBM-ICE National Hackathon- Shortlisted: Low-level design document for firewall to detect ARP spoofing
I am a proponent of free and open source software that adheres to the Unix philosophy. Software that adheres at least in part to this that I use, donate to development of, or keep an eye on is listed here
Aside from technology and programming related interests, my hobbies include playing the guitar and writing about things I am fascinated by.
View my Work
You can check out my GitHub here
You can check out my LinkedIn here
You can check out my Leetcode here
You can find my contact details here