About the Creator

Built by a Practitioner.
Not a Product Company.

Phalanx Cyber represents a new model for security innovation — the entire platform is engineered by only one cybersecurity strategist with over 25 years of hands-on experience spanning security engineering, product leadership, and enterprise security operations. It is a deliberate demonstration of what becomes possible when decades of practitioner expertise converge with AI-augmented development.

Krishnendu De
LinkedIn GitHub

Krishnendu De

Cybersecurity Leader & Engineering Architect

IIT Kharagpur · 25+ Years in Cybersecurity · Kolkata, India

Krishnendu De is a cybersecurity leader with over 25 years of experience across security engineering, threat intelligence, product development, and enterprise security strategy. He is the sole architect and creator behind the Phalanx Cyber platform — a comprehensive portfolio of 44 open-source security repositories on GitHub, spanning every layer of the enterprise stack: Application code, Cloud infrastructure, SaaS platforms, ERP Security, Network and Security Appliances, and security of OT/ICS environments and equipment like PLCs, RTUs and FRTUs.

His career spans senior roles across India, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and international markets — building and leading security programs for complex, regulated enterprises. Krishnendu brings a rare intersection of deep technical capability, cyber product vision, and fluent risk communication within the boardroom. At the same time he is equally competent in writing a SAST scanner from first principles, designing a zero-trust architecture, or presenting a risk-quantified business case to a board of directors.

Krishnendu holds a master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur — one of Asia's most selective engineering institutions — and the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) certification from OffSec, CISSP from ISC2, anchoring his practitioner-first approach in validated adversarial expertise.

Career Journey

24 Years of Building & Defending

A career defined by the convergence of engineering depth, security expertise, and strategic business thinking — across industries, geographies, and technology eras.

Expertise

The Three Lenses

What makes Krishnendu's approach distinctive is the ability to operate across three domains that are rarely combined in a single practitioner: deep engineering, product thinking, and business strategy.

Engineering Depth

Not a security manager who delegates to engineers — a hands-on builder who writes production security tools from scratch. Every scanner in the Phalanx Cyber platform is personally architected and coded. Expertise spans Python, Bash, PowerShell, JavaScript, and deep knowledge of protocols from SSH/SNMP to OData/REST to PAN-OS XML API.

  • 30 open-source security repositories on GitHub
  • 50,000+ lines of production security tooling
  • Scanners for 23+ platforms and technologies
  • Custom SAST engines, API scanners, CIS auditors

Product Thinking

Every scanner is designed as a complete product, not a proof-of-concept. Consistent CLI interfaces, structured JSON/HTML reporting, severity-based exit codes for CI/CD, dark-themed interactive dashboards, and comprehensive documentation. The user experience reflects a product management mindset applied to security tooling.

  • Unified Finding schema across all 30 tools
  • 3-phase architecture: Collect, Analyze, Report
  • Multi-format output: JSON, HTML, CSV, SARIF
  • CI/CD native with exit code conventions

Business Strategy

Security tools without business context are noise generators. Krishnendu's approach maps every security finding to business risk, compliance frameworks, and remediation cost. The Phalanx Cyber platform is designed to produce board-ready output, not just technical scan results, enabling CISOs to communicate risk in the language of the business.

  • 8 compliance frameworks mapped (CIS, NIST, ISO, PCI)
  • Open-source security strategy and implementation
  • Risk-based prioritization with CVSS, EPSS, CISA KEV
  • Executive-ready reporting and posture scoring
Thought Leadership

Published Research & Writing

Krishnendu regularly publishes technical research and strategic analysis on LinkedIn, covering red teaming, threat intelligence, AI in security, and enterprise defense strategies.

Research

OT Vulnerability Management: A Risk-Based Approach

A framework for prioritizing vulnerability remediation in operational technology environments where patching is constrained by uptime requirements and safety considerations.

Case Study

Live Red Teaming Assignment: Real-World Engagement

Documented methodology and findings from a production red team engagement, demonstrating attack chain construction from initial access through lateral movement to domain dominance.

Threat Intel

Cobalt Strike and BlackSuit Ransomware: Technical Analysis

Deep-dive technical case study of a ransomware operation, including C2 infrastructure analysis, initial access vectors, and defensive detection strategies for SOC teams.

AI + Security

Agentic AI-Based Red Teaming: Pentest Copilot

Exploration of how agentic AI systems can augment penetration testing workflows, automating reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, and exploit chain construction.

Cloud

Penetration Testing in Kubernetes Clusters

Comprehensive methodology for attacking Kubernetes environments, covering RBAC exploitation, container escapes, service account abuse, and secrets exfiltration techniques.

Identity

ESC8 Attack: Exploiting ADCS for Domain Dominance

Technical analysis of Active Directory Certificate Services exploitation, demonstrating how misconfigured certificate templates enable privilege escalation to domain administrator.

Read All Articles on LinkedIn
Open-Source Portfolio

44 Repositories. One Vision.

Every repository on GitHub is personally built by Krishnendu — from architecture design to the last line of code. Together, they form the most comprehensive open-source enterprise security platform available today.

44

GitHub Repositories

Spanning SAST, DAST, CSPM, SSPM, KSPM, CIS hardening, detection engineering, and attack surface management

4,500+

Security Controls

Detection rules, compliance checks, and vulnerability signatures across all platforms and 15+ compliance frameworks

32,000+

CVE Database

NVD-synced vulnerability intelligence with EPSS scoring and CISA KEV enrichment

23+

Platforms Covered

AWS, Azure, GCP, M365, SAP, ServiceNow, Kubernetes, Cisco, Palo Alto, Windows, Linux, and more

8

Compliance Frameworks

CIS, NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, PCI DSS v4.0, OWASP, MITRE ATT&CK, IEC 62443, SOC 2

21K+

LinkedIn Followers

A growing community of security professionals following Krishnendu's research and open-source work

AppSec 5 repos SAST DAST API AI-SPM RAI Cloud 5 repos AWS Azure GCP CDR K8s SaaS 5 repos M365 SNOW SAP SF Tableau Ariba Infra 7 repos Cisco PAN-OS Linux Win OT/ICS SAP Threat 4 repos DetEng RedTm EDR AD Atk Risk & ASM 4 repos EASM VulnMgmt CRQ Portal 44 Repos · 120K+ Lines of Code

Complete Repository Catalogue

Application Security

Application-Security-Scanner Dynamic-Application-Security-Testing API-Security Responsible-AI-Framework AI-Secure-Posture-Management

Cloud Security

AWS-Security-Scanner Azure-Security-Scanner GCP-CNAPP-Security-Scanner Cloud-Detection-Response Kubernetes-KSPM

SaaS Security (SSPM)

O365-Security-Posture-Management SAP-SuccessFactors SSPM-Tableau SAP-Ariba-Security-Scanner Zscaler-Security-Scanner

Infrastructure & OT

Network-Security-Scanner-NSS PaloAlto-Network-Security Linux-Hardening Windows-Hardening OT-Security SAP-S4HANA-RISE-Security-Scanner SAP-Code-Vulnerability-Analyzer

Threat Detection & Red Team

Detection-Engineering CrowdStrike-Red-Teaming-Test CrowdStrike-Falcon-Validation-Scanner Active-Directory-Attack-Scenarios

Risk & Attack Surface

Attack-Surface-Management Vulnerability-Management Cyber-Risk-Quantification My-Portal (phalanxcyber.ai)
Credentials

Education & Certifications

Education

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

India's first and most prestigious IIT (est. 1951). Consistently ranked among Asia's top 10 engineering institutions. The rigorous engineering curriculum built a foundation for first-principles thinking in security architecture, algorithm design, and systems engineering that underpins every tool in the Phalanx Cyber portfolio.

ISC2 · Since 2008

CISSP — Certified Information Systems Security Professional

The world's premier cybersecurity certification, held since 2008. CISSP validates mastery across all eight domains of information security: Security & Risk Management, Asset Security, Security Architecture, Communications & Network Security, IAM, Security Assessment, Security Operations, and Software Development Security. An ISC2 member for over 17 years, reflecting sustained commitment to the profession.

Offensive Security

OSCP — Offensive Security Certified Professional

The industry's gold-standard penetration testing certification from OffSec. Requires hands-on exploitation of a multi-machine lab environment under exam conditions. Validates the real-world offensive skillset that directly informs how every Phalanx Cyber detection rule is written — built by someone who knows how attackers actually operate.

Cloud

AWS Certified Solutions Architect

Validates expertise in designing distributed systems and architectures on Amazon Web Services. This certification grounds the AWS Security Scanner's detection logic in hands-on architectural knowledge — understanding not just what a misconfiguration is, but why it creates risk in real-world cloud deployments.

Expertise

24+ Years of Practitioner Experience

The most important credential is not a certificate — it is two decades of defending real enterprises against real threats. From penetration testing to SOC operations, from incident response to security architecture, from red teaming to board-level risk communication. This depth is what separates Phalanx Cyber from academic exercises.

Additional Certifications & Credentials

Microsoft Identity & Access Administrator Entra ID, Conditional Access, PIM, App Registrations
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Certified Cloud architecture, security, and infrastructure on Google Cloud
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) Kubernetes cluster operations, networking, security, and workload management
Splunk Certified SIEM administration, SPL query development, and detection engineering
CyberArk Certified Privileged Access Management, vault architecture, and secrets security
Contact

Start the Conversation

If you would like to connect, drop me an email and I will try to respond back. We can always set up a meeting to discuss further.

Write Me an Email
LinkedIn GitHub krishnendu.de@hotmail.com