Overview

Milind Purswani, a 26-year-old cybersecurity enthusiast, is currently employed at Amazon. Hailing from India, Milind’s zeal for cybersecurity drove him to pursue a Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity from UMD. He self-funded his education entirely through bug bounty-hunting and assistantships, earning an exceptional $100,000 along the way.

Through his remarkable expertise, Milind has saved Amazon millions of dollars and decades of technical security debt. He has played a vital role in prioritizing security issues and safeguarding Amazon FireTV and Amazon Kindle, leading to his rapid promotion to Security Engineer II within 18 months.

Additionally, Milind has been recognized as world’s top 25 hackers. He competed in the world’s largest ethical hacking competition, organized by HackerOne H1-2010, where he outperformed over 4,500 hackers from 59 different countries. Highly respected security researchers like Nahamsec and Codingo have praised Milind’s remarkable contributions to creating innovative tools, including WhoxyRM and Syborg, which he voluntarily maintains to advance the community and make the internet a safer place.

At the young age of 19, he earned his CEH certification and was awarded the prestigious 1st Prize at the all-India Braintech Cybersecurity Championship. This accolade helped him gain widespread recognition and earned him over Rs 50,000, which he used to fund the remainder of his bachelor’s education. Milind is also the proud holder of two CVEs, CVE-2021-22193 and CVE-2023-29066, latter recognized by CISA.

Furthermore, Milind’s blogs on pandaonair.com, where he shares his knowledge and learning, have been recognized by multiple cybersecurity bodies, Intigiti, hacktricks, and Sprocket Security. Milind is an exceptional cybersecurity professional, and his skills and talents have earned him several accolades. He was selected as a finalist for Outstanding Young Cyber Security Professional at the 2024 Cyber Outstanding Security Performance Awards, and his expertise has led to his selection to judge applications at the 2024 Cybersecurity Globee Awards and the 2023 Brandon Hall Technology and Educational Technology Awards.