Meet Rimini Street IT Hero and cybersecurity expert Naveen Tadpatri, and discover how the security vulnerability analysis reports (SVARs) he and his team produce help clients manage security amidst constant change.
Assessing IT security vulnerabilities is like navigating a minefield: One wrong step could trigger a much bigger problem. But how do you know what to do? That’s where IT Heroes and cybersecurity experts like Naveen Tadpatri help Rimini Street clients every day.
Naveen, who joined the company nearly 10 years ago and, in that time, has won our Most Valuable Professional award twice, is proud of his role as Rimini Street’s primary creator of security vulnerability analysis reports (SVARs) for Oracle and SAP clients.The SVAR initiative (Level 1 Security Assessment) is a unique service. Included with Rimini Support™, SVARs provide threat research and analysis of vulnerabilities, along with mitigation options and actionable strategies to address them.
How the SVAR initiative works
Naveen and his team of security solution architects generate Oracle SVARs quarterly, SAP SVARs monthly, and Zero-Day/POC notifications (for Oracle, SAP, and the third-party components affecting them) following a public exploit.
Naveen’s team also publishes technical notes which include cybersecurity information of interest to cross-functional teams. These notes are used internally by primary support engineers to better understand security vulnerabilities and, in turn, better help Rimini Street clients. Notes include a brief description about a specific technique or procedure or technological development, including those covered in whitepapers and annual security reports, while covering technical details about a feature in a product and details about a vulnerability that may impact clients.
The benefits of SVARs
The comprehensive SVAR updates give clients a critical advantage in managing cybersecurity.
“Our SVARs are unique in the sense that not only do they cover details of vulnerabilities that pose serious security risk to RSI clients, but also propose a detailed approach to mitigation of vulnerabilities, which reduces the surface area and related vectors to a potential attack,” says Naveen. “This makes a lot of difference to our clients.”
In fact, there are times when clients can close open support tickets after they have resolved their problem using information provided in SVARs. “This is very true in case of the Zero-Day/POC notifications,” says Naveen.
The path to SVAR expertise
Based in Hyderabad, India, Naveen dabbled in journalism before he became a security architect. He has two master’s degrees from Osmania University: one in English language and literature and the other in chemistry. He also holds two postgraduate diplomas: one in business administration and management and the other in journalism and mass communication.
He spent a year as a subeditor for The New Indian Express newspaper and three years as a senior technical writer for BBM Infotech in Hyderabad. Naveen parlayed that experience into a position as knowledge management head at RM Education, an EdTech company in Thiruvananthapuram. After five years there, he moved into knowledge management and product documentation role at Hyderabad’s SumTotal Systems, maker of learning and talent development software. He then joined Rimini Street as “architect, threat research, and technical writer.”
During his career development, he became certified in ITILV3 and Prince2 (Practitioner). Naveen’s work on SVARs has a dual focus of both helping existing clients, and educating prospective clients on the benefits of this level of cybersecurity insight and direction.
“I feel proud that SVARs are increasingly becoming a unique selling point for RSI presales teams. Our clients see a great value in receiving them,” Says Naveen. ““While I’m not in a client-facing role, I do get involved in APAC presales team calls with prospects, as time permits.”
Naveen is confident that SVARs help time-pressed clients keep up with the fast pace of constant change in the tech sector. He also knows that with change the only constant, the service his team provides also has to shift as necessity requires. “I have found that our client demands are ever-evolving and constantly growing,” says Naveen. “To set our business apart, it is essential for us to continually adapt, innovate, and implement demand-driven changes.”
Learn more: Discover how your organization can benefit from Rimini Street Advisory Security Solutions.