👋🏽 Hi, I'm Advait.
I’m a Computer Science student and cybersecurity enthusiast at the University of Waterloo. I’ve engaged with a spectrum of technology - VR, robotics, AI/ML, EdTech through research, authorship, and national/international level competitions.
These varied experiences lead me to ultimately realise that my passion lay in the field of cybersecurity.
I’m as passionate about the immense technical challenges that define cybersecurity as I am about the social question of data privacy and state surveillance. I’ve spend the last couple years exploring this field - messing around on TryHackMe, researching and writing my book on improving personal data privacy, and obtaining both my Security+ and CySA+ certification from CompTIA.
Outside of CS, I bring a large number of transferrable soft skills to the table - having demonstrated my ability to communicate, innovate, and lead through my pursuits in competitive debate, Model UN, entrepreneurship, and student government.
Links:
⛷️ Currently: looking for S26 internships!
Professional Experience
Dawson Partners | Cybersecurity Analyst Intern (Returning) May - August 2025 | Toronto, ON
- Acted as primary responder for SOC alerts, help desk escalations, and on-call incidents. Resolved 150+ email queries and 200+ SIEM events; refined detection rules and cut alert noise by 73%.
- Piloted data loss prevention (DLP) tuning during ChatGPT Enterprise launch through Zscaler; contributed to procurement and setup of a $40K+ prompt-level data loss visibility solution.
- Supported two 6-week Mandiant red team exercises, covering physical and social engineering attacks; supported blue team remediation efforts across GCP, Azure AD, and internal web apps.
Dawson Partners | Cybersecurity Analyst Intern May - August 2024 | Toronto, ON
- Led procurement and rollout of Check Point Harmony (AI-enhanced Secure Email Gateway) for 250 users; managed vendor selection, Proofs of Concept (PoCs), and pilot testing. Resulted in 40% better phishing/malware detection and faster email reviews via improved investigative context.
- Assisted SOC 2 compliance via Vanta by leading evidence collection, policy reviews, and disaster recovery drills; supported onboarding, security awareness training, phishing simulations, and SharePoint cleanup initiatives.
Interaptix Augmented Reality | Software QC/QA September - December 2023 Toronto, ON
- Developed and implemented new test plans for the re-architecture of the application, increasing test plan coverage from 900 to 1200 (33% increase) on web and iOS
- Closely involved in the company’s Agile Software Development Life Cycle, managing Github boards, milestones, and repos and closely collaborating with product managers, frontend/backend developers, and UI designers to support major client releases.
- Thoroughly tested new releases of the app on a short turn-around period in a fast-paced startup environment, conducting smoke, regression, ticket, stress testing, etc.
