CHANNEL CHIEF
As head of innovation at ProVise Consulting, AADESH GAWDE
provides his customers with unbiased and forward-looking thinking on
how best to manage their security and technology.
A
s head of research and development
function at ProVise Consulting,
Aadesh Gawde is a cybersecurity
and GRC Advisor to clients. He helps them
maintain a fine balance between modern-
day technology opportunities and related
adversities. ProVise Consulting is an
independent, product agnostic, forward
thinking advisory firm, specialising in GRC
and cybersecurity.
“My role is to be an unbiased adviser
and thought leader to my customers and to
help them realise the value of technology
while continually managing cybersecurity,
privacy, compliance and risk exposure to an
acceptable level,” he explains.
He describes his day-to-day frame
of mind: “A typical nine to five is not my
schedule. I play and work pretty much
most of the time. My role gives me the
freedom to be unconventional and think
out of the box for disruptive ideas and
to conceptualise innovations. I have the
opportunity to ideate, innovate and improve
the cybersecurity outlook. My job gives me
the unique opportunity to nurture foresight
and continually be ahead of the game. I get
to make mistakes, observe others’ mistakes,
learn and improve from these experiences.”
Gawde started as a trainer in technology
only to realise that he needed to be hands-
on to be an effective trainer. He built a lab at
home and used to experiment and research,
and learnt from trial and error. He likes to be
objective and rational, and firmly believes
that eventually logic should prevail.
He feels that, if any one performs at high
levels making their line managers redundant,
then everyone is expected to perform at high
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
Issue 18
levels as well. Everyone grows in the chain
and eventually the organisation grows as well.
“I give capable people challenging
opportunities and monitor their performance
closely. I firmly believe in the idea of getting
people smarter than you, encouraging
them, motivating them, empowering them
and then get out of their way. Self-starters
with logic and common sense thrive while
working with me; others find me difficult to
work with,” he explains.
Gawde believes that signature and rule-
based threat detection will be obsolete in the
next two years. While anomaly-based, deep
learning, cognitive cybersecurity systems
will become mainstream. AI based cyber
defence and offense bots will replace the
common tasks of a human security engineer
in the next four years.
He points out that, interestingly, most
of the cybersecurity attack vectors are
still at the software layer. There will be an
increase in hardware-based offensive and
defensive cybersecurity. Hardware-based
security isolation, sandboxing and quantum
crypto accelerators will be evolving in a
couple of years. The trend of security threats
eliminated by design, will be a game changer
in upcoming cyber technologies.
“I am an old school person, and I strongly
believe that a computer isolated from the
network, locked in a metal fire-resistant box,
and physically locked is safe,” he reflects.
Outside of work, Gawde is a part-time
disc jockey. Digital music production is a
stress reliever for him. He loves nature and
being outdoors excites him. “When I am not
working, I off-road in UAE deserts or you
would find me on some golf course.”
Aadesh Gawde, Principal Chief Innovation Officer
at ProVise Consulting.
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