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Prajit Kumar Das

Prajit Kumar Das

Engineering Manager @ Cisco Systems Inc.

About Me

I am an Engineering Manager in Cisco's Security Business Group (SBG) on the Firepower product suite. My team builds software for Identity & Access Management, Network Configuration Management, REST API Framework, and Cloud Services Integration.


I have seven years of experience working as a full-time employee in the software development industry. Additionally, I have seven years of experience working in various academic and non-academic research organizations doing Cybersecurity research.


I have led software delivery in Identity & Access Management and Security Containerization solutions. I have experience working on various areas of Cybersecurity software starting from the development and delivery of solutions like Single Sign-On, Multi-Factor Authentication, External Authentication to fixing security vulnerabilities disclosed via MITRE Corporation's CVEs, implementing firewall technologies using modern cloud computing infrastructures like Docker and Kubernetes.


I am interested in Engineering/Product Management work. Due to my research and industry experience, I would best fit in a Cybersecurity domain, but I am open to working in other domains as well.


I completed my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2017. My dissertation topic was "Context-dependent privacy and security management on mobile devices". During this time I did research internships at Samsung, Apple, and Symantec.


From 2007 to 2010, I worked as a Software Engineer performing design and development of application programming interfaces to be used by client systems to manage backend databases, with Tata Consultancy Services, India. I graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology with honors from Jadavpur University, India.


Projects

MITHRIL project name

MITHRIL - PhD dissertation project

We present Mithril, a framework for capturing user access control policies that are fine-grained, context-sensitive and are represented using Semantic Web technologies and thereby manages access control decisions for user data on mobile devices. Read the paper from IEEE CIC 2016 here
Check out presentation to find out more
Slides also available on SlideShare
See demo video here

Heimdall project name

Heimdall - System call analysis project

The Heimdall project focused on the analysis of system calls with a goal of classifying apps into their perceived behavior category. Thereby enabling detection of outlier apps that try to do more than described in Google Play Store or what was informed to the user. Read the paper hereCheck out presentation to find out more Slides also available on SlideShare

CARLTON project name

CARLTON - Google Physical Web project

CARLTON is a Google Physical Web based context aware privacy managed question answering system. With the advent of the Internet of Things we face certain significant privacy and security concerns. CARLTON is a framework for managing data privacy for entities in a Physical Web deployment using Semantic Web technologies. It uses context-sensitive privacy policies to protect data privacy. Check out presentation to find out more Slides also available on SlideShare App source

baebots project name

BaeBots - Coding-free platform to build smart, cuddly chatbots

BaeBots is a platform to build chatbot interfaces to Institution specific information about people, places and events. Simply put, users of the chatbot can ask questions like "Who is Dr. Suess?", "Where is Dr. Suess's office?", "When is University Health Services open?" and get answers! Oh and it requires no coding! Check out video to find out more App source

mobipedia project name

Mobipedia.link! - A Mobile Applications Knowledge Base

We present Mobipedia, a Linked data cloud with knowledge on mobile devices. The knowledge base contains information such as application data, and developer meta-data, permissions used (in android), similar apps etc. Our data cloud makes it easier to build tools, perform studies and run analyses. By using semantic techniques knowledge in the endpoint is linked with other Linked Data sources such as DBpedia. Find out more

safepod project name

Safepod - Safer together

"Formally", SafePod is a mobile app that lets your selected friends know if you haven't reached a specified place at a specified time. SafePod also provides a forum for victims to share traumatic experiences anonymously. Remember that person who assumes the role of the caretaker when you go out partying? SafePod will bring that experience to your mobile phone! The goal of SafePod is to create an open community of developers to build technology that makes the world a safer place. App source

FaceBlock project name

Face-Block.me! - Privacy-Aware Pictures for everyone

FaceBlock is a proof of concept implementation of a system that can create Privacy-Aware Pictures using smart devices. The pervasiveness of Privacy-Aware Pictures could be a right step towards balancing privacy needs and comfort afforded by technology. Thus, we can get the best out of Wearable technology without being oblivious about the privacy of those around you. Read the blog to find out more Watch the demo video

Publications

Work Experience

Engineering Manager - Cisco Systems Inc.(October 2021 - Present)

Managing a team of developers working on software for Cisco's Security Business Group. Led the design, development, automated testing, continuous integration of on-prem software and massively scalable containerized security solutions for Cisco's product portfolio. Collaborating and coordinating work across multiple product areas and cross-functional teams to build the next generation of firewalls. Following agile software development practices delivering features for Identity & Access Management, Network Configuration Management, REST API Framework, and Cloud Services Integration. Ensuring compliance standards are met for third-party software security reviews. Collaborating across teams to handle internationalization to increase Cisco products' market outreach.

Technical Product Manager - Cisco Systems Inc.(Jan 2019 - September 2021)

Led the development of the key feature of Single Sign-on using SAML2. Helped bring in $11 million in revenue by delivering high-priority customer requests quickly.

Software Engineer - Cisco Systems Inc.(September 2017 - December 2018)

Worked on design, development and testing of software solutions for Cisco's Firepower product suite.

Graduate Research Assistant - Ebiquity Research Group (August 2012 - September 2017)

Doctoral research work with the goal of achieving context-driven access control on mobile platforms.

Research Intern - Samsung Research America (June 2014 - August 2014)

Created privacy control systems on the Android platform for protecting user personal or sensitive data.

PhD Intern - Apple Inc. (June 2013 - August 2013)

Data analytics project with a goal of identifying areas of accuracy improvement for Siri.

Intern - Symantec Corporation (June 2012 - August 2012)

Development of server side scripts for reporting automated test results of nightly builds of Symantec products.

Intern - Symantec Corporation (May 2011 - August 2011)

Development of server side scripts for reporting automated test results of nightly builds of Symantec products.

Graduate Teaching Assistant - University of Maryland, Baltimore County (August 2010 - June 2012)

Assisting students with their coursework and grading projects, homework, quizzes and exams

Software Engineer - Tata Consultancy Services (September 2007 - April 2010)

Worked as designer, developer, offshore team lead and billing estimation expert for telecom project.

In the News...

Prof. Anupam Joshi quoted in Nature news article on wearable technology

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Was a finalist for the 3 Minute Thesis competition in the 38th UMBC Graduate Research Conference, 2016. Check out my talk in the video below: