Cybersecurity & Cloud Orientation 2025: An Interactive Journey with Sandeep Vijayaraghavan
In an era where cyberattacks are projected to cost the global economy $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 (Cybersecurity Ventures), the urgency to develop skilled cybersecurity leaders has never been greater.
To address this demand, the REVA Academy for Corporate Excellence (RACE) organized a special orientation program for aspiring learners who had registered to explore the M.Sc. in Cybersecurity and Cloud Architecture & Security. The session was designed not merely as an introduction, but as an opportunity for participants to experience the depth, rigor, and relevance of the program before formally stepping into it.
Led by Mr. Sandeep Vijayaraghavan (EVP – Cyber Security & Cloud Service – Terralogic Inc.), the orientation combined expert insights with interactive discussions, helping participants connect global cybersecurity trends with real-world scenarios.
👉 Read on to discover the key insights, discussions, and takeaways from this interactive orientation.
Learning from Breaches: Participant Stories
1. The Ransomware Reality Check
One participant recalled a global ransomware outbreak that crippled business operations across regions. In their company, the attack locked critical systems, forcing the team to shut down data centers and move into manual recovery mode. The story hit hard because it showed that even mature organizations, with advanced firewalls and antivirus systems, can collapse without proactive threat hunting and incident response drills.
2. When Credential Stuffing Brought Systems Down
Another participant shared how stolen credentials from unrelated websites were used to infiltrate their corporate systems. Despite using strong internal access controls, attackers exploited reused employee passwords to escalate privileges. The breach was a wake-up call on the importance of multi-factor authentication (MFA), employee awareness, and continuous monitoring of identity systems.
3. The Insider Threat Nobody Expected
One story revealed the hidden danger within organizations. A trusted insider, knowingly or unknowingly, became the source of a data leak that led to financial and reputational damage. While firewalls and intrusion detection systems stood tall, they could not stop what came from the inside. This experience opened the floor to a discussion on zero-trust architecture, user behavior analytics, and governance frameworks.
4. The Day a Patch Went Wrong
A participant narrated the CrowdStrike update outage incident where a faulty patch triggered a global IT meltdown. Their enterprise faced system downtime across critical functions, leading to emergency escalation to the board. This story highlighted how operational resilience and business continuity planning are just as important as preventing external cyberattacks.
5. A Close Brush with Petya
The infamous Petya ransomware attack found its way into the conversation, with a participant explaining how it spread rapidly across their supply chain network. Systems were frozen, and even after decryption, data integrity remained compromised. The takeaway was clear: supply chain security and proactive patching must sit at the core of every organization’s defense strategy.
The Program as a Living Journey
Instead of walking through a dry syllabus, Sandeep described the program as a journey into security maturity. He invited participants to envision each module as a milestone: threat modelling on Azure Sentinel, attack simulations that unfold across multiple phases, electives in Governance, DevSecOps, and Compliance, and culminating in a capstone project that tackles real industry problems.
He didn’t mince words:
Trends, Threats, and the Future
The orientation didn’t shy away from emerging risks. The class mulled over how AI and automation are being weaponized. A recent survey revealed that 65% of organizations admitted their cybersecurity defenses are outdated and ill-equipped to face AI-enhanced threats. (Source: TechRadar)
Another sobering fact: credential theft has surged by 160% in 2025, now constituting nearly 20% of data breaches. (Source: IT Pro)
Sandeep used these numbers as more than a scare tactic — he framed them as a call to arms. As attackers scale using generative AI, defenders must become more nimble, context-aware, and purposeful in how they invest in people, processes, and tools.
Dialogue Over Doctrine
What made the orientation special was that it wasn’t a monologue — it was a conversation. Attendees from fintech debated how to secure APIs, those from production facilities asked about OT vulnerabilities, and a risk manager probed vendor onboarding standards.
One even asked: “Given our budgets, how much security is enough?” The answer was not binary. Instead, Sandeep steered the group toward risk-based prioritization — protecting the critical assets first, embracing automation, building resilience, and never treating security as an afterthought.
A Call for Commitment
As the clock ticked past scheduled hours, Sandeep closed the session with clarity: intense Saturday classes, rigorous preparation, and sustained effort would be non-negotiable. But his promise was clear:
The Wrap-Up: A Call to Lead
As the session drew to a close, the energy in the room was different from where it began. Participants weren’t simply curious learners anymore — they were aware of the responsibility that came with stepping into this program.
Sandeep Sir closed with a thought that summed up the day:
The session ended not with silence, but with buzzing conversations, exchanged contacts, and promises to continue the dialogue. Orientation wasn’t a formality — it was the first battle drill in a long campaign to shape the future of cybersecurity leadership.
