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Securonix Hackathon: Building the Future of Security, Together

Company Insights

By Taylor Kain, Sr. Product Marketing Manager

Securonix has always believed in pushing the boundaries of security. It’s not just what we do, it’s who we are. And what better way to spark groundbreaking ideas than a company-wide hackathon? From January 2nd to 5th, the Securonix Engineering family, spanning across teams, time zones, and continents, came together in a collaborative display of innovation.

This wasn’t just about writing code in a caffeine-fueled frenzy, it was about empowering our incredible engineers to break free from the normal grind of squashing bugs and daily scrums to dive into uncharted territory. With the full backing of our executive leadership, including Venkat Kotla (CTO), Haggai Polak (CPO), Chris Brazdziunas (EVP Engineering), and Phillip Boles (VP, Engineering), they had the freedom to explore, experiment, and unleash their potential.

And unleash they did! We received 12 submissions from diverse teams across the company, hailing from our Analytics, SOAR, Hunting, QA, Response, and UI/Shared Microservices teams. These teams poured their hearts and minds into crafting solutions that could shape the very future of Securonix. It wasn’t just a competition; it was a vibrant ecosystem of support, with our colleagues in India contributing brilliantly through a dedicated demo session during IST hours. The entire company including Product, Sales, Marketing, Operations and the ELT leaned in, offering guidance, feedback, and unwavering enthusiasm.

The culmination of this collaborative energy was a showcase of ingenuity that left everyone on the edge of their seats. Here is a summary of the submissions and their high-level themes:

1. Empowering automation with cutting-edge technologies:

Hackathon participants harnessed the power of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to automate complex tasks. Projects explored using ChatGPT, Amazon Bedrock and similar tools for generating incident response playbooks, creating security policies in natural language, and even writing efficient Spotter search queries for threat hunting. Additionally, ideas leveraged serverless architectures and Kubernetes integration to optimize resource utilization and drive cost savings.

2. Transforming user experience and streamlining workflows:

Another core focus of the hackathon was on enhancing user experience and simplifying daily operations. Proposals aimed to improve incident management through visual workflow representations, integrate AI assistants into the SOAR platform for more intelligent responses, and develop tools like JSON to HTML formatters for better data visualization within the platform. Moreover, projects explored automatic indicator-to-Spotter query generation, streamlining threat hunting investigations and empowering analysts to work smarter, not harder.

3. Future-proofing security with innovation and foresight:

The hackathon participants looked beyond immediate solutions, envisioning innovative approaches to address future security challenges. Projects proposed leveraging AI to analyze user activity and provide actionable insights, while others explored using a chatbot to identify and validate security policies with greater efficiency. Furthermore, several ideas showcased a commitment to adopting cutting-edge backend technologies for a more robust and scalable security infrastructure.

The Securonix Hackathon wasn’t just a competition; it was a testament to the collective ingenuity and passion of our Engineering team. These high-level themes represent just a glimpse into the vast potential that lies ahead, and we’re excited to see how these innovative ideas will shape the future of security, both at Securonix and beyond.

Our best asset at Securonix is our people, and it’s people that drive innovation.

Hackathon awards

The hackathon submissions were scored against a wide range of parameters and across three award categories. The winners were chosen by both popular vote and the discerning eyes of our product management and executive leadership teams. So without further ado, let’s get to the awards. Drumroll please…

Most likely to productize: Spotter search GPT – Hunting Team (Aryan Agarwal, Rohan Ratwani, Mukesh Kumar Das, Biswajit Nath, Shreyas N)
R&D choice: Snypr activity insights – Response Team (Kailash Nathani, Sachin Kumar Talan, Chandrakanth Yela, Akash, Chandrawade)
Best use of new technology: policy 360 – Analytics Team (Rakesh Palacherla, Vinay Nagireddy)

While all the submissions were fantastic and showed great promise, these three teams were recognized as outstanding in their respective categories. To add some fun to the mix, to qualify for their prize, each member had to come on camera and give an acceptance speech–Oscar Awards style. The winners received cool swag and gift cards as well! Great job to all the winners.

The innovation journey continues

But the real win? The infectious spirit of innovation that permeated the entire event. The camaraderie, the shared passion for pushing the boundaries, and the unwavering belief in the power of teamwork – these are the true takeaways that will fuel Securonix’s journey for years to come.

And the journey doesn’t end with the final demos. Each hackathon submission will be meticulously reviewed by our product management team, with the potential to be woven into the fabric of future Securonix projects. These ideas have the power to win new deals, optimize costs, enhance platform scalability, and solidify Securonix’s position as a technology leader.

A huge shoutout to Jeff Haas, Neha Tiwari, and Neha Pande for their phenomenal organization and execution. They were the behind-the-scenes heroes who kept the organization moving, gears turning and the energy flowing.

The Securonix Hackathon proved that innovation thrives when brilliant minds come together. These ideas have the potential to shape the future of security, and we can’t wait to see them become reality.