Manideep Konakandla (E 2017)
Security Engineer and Tech Lead, Amazon
Bio
Manideep Konakandla (MS27) has been a Security Engineer at Amazon since 2017. His other titles include author, security researcher, and public speaker.
Prior to INI, Konakandla was a Team Lead for Core Security and Data Analytics at TATA Consultancy Services in India. At age 21, he wrote a book on ethical hacking and information security, making him one of the youngest authors to publish a book on these subjects in India.
Konakandla received his Master of Science in Information Security (MSIS) from the INI in 2017. During his time at the INI, Konakandla represented Carnegie Mellon University at the 2017 RSA Conference, and worked as a research assistant at the Carnegie Mellon CyLab Security and Privacy Institute.
At graduation, Konakandla received the Outstanding Student Service Award for his research with Professor Limin Jia. “Manideep’s contributions towards finding vulnerabilities in container technologies and suggesting patches have helped millions of users who are early adaptors of the technology, but are skeptical about its security,” said Jia. “Manideep undoubtedly helped raise the profile of CMU and INI.”
Konakandla is now on the Amazon Application Security Team in Seattle, WA, where he designs and builds secure-by-default controls into internal web frameworks to mitigate top web vulnerabilities. “With less than two years of experience here at Amazon, I am now a tech lead, where my responsibility is to set the vision and guide my team towards it,” he explained.
In terms of advice for current INI students, Konakandla emphasized the importance of having a strong network of people. “Maintain good relationships and strong connections with your peers,” he said.