High-Stakes Cybersecurity

How a cybersecurity consultant designs tailored solutions for top clients—while prioritizing privacy, ethics, and societal impact

Armed with extensive cybersecurity knowledge and experience, Harshini Chellasamy (ITM/M.A.S. CYF ’20) is well prepared to tackle the challenges of the profession—but she says that her current role at Boston Consulting Group has been different.

“At BCG, the stakes are high, and we operate at high standards of excellence,” she says.

As a senior cybersecurity consultant, Chellasamy finds herself working side by side with the top executives of Fortune 500 companies to build cybersecurity solutions.

The work is challenging, specifically understanding the particular needs that clients have coming from a variety of industries including health care, finance, education, and the public sector.

“The projects are motivating and enriching,” she notes. “Every engagement requires a deep dive into the business’s context. Understanding our clients’ challenges, objectives, and culture allows us to deliver solutions that are unique and highly impactful.”

The issues that Chellasamy encounters fluctuate depending on what the client needs. Some require assistance in structuring their cybersecurity teams, others in designing robust cybersecurity architectures, and still others in scaling secure systems. Her role often involves collaborating with other BCG consultants—each bringing specialized expertise across various domains.

The solutions, Chellasamy says, must stand up to a rigorous review to satisfy the clients’ needs.

“Our solutions go through rigorous review to ensure they meet client needs,” she says. “Every recommendation we provide is substantiated. Clients expect data-backed answers that prove our solutions will deliver results.”

Understanding how a particular industry works, discovering a client’s needs, gaining the perspective of a specific corporate culture, building solutions, and backing up these solutions with facts require a certain amount of research.

Learning how to gather information and present it successfully to others were skills that Chellasamy says she learned while attending Illinois Institute of Technology, where she got her first taste of research with her professors. She was able to publish three papers with faculty researchers before she graduated.

However, the research demands of consulting differ from academia.

“In academic research, I explored various topics of interest based on what I wanted to know more about,” she explains. “In consulting, our work is outcome-driven—clients come with specific questions, and we provide concrete answers.”

Chellasamy also had the opportunity to present research that she conducted with her former adviser Maurice Dawson, associate professor of information technology and management at Illinois Tech, and Annamaria Szakonyi, assistant professor of information systems and cybersecurity at St. Louis University, at the Midwest Association for Information Systems at Bradley University.

The trio’s paper, titled “Russia’s Strategies for Leveraging AI Policies and Investments for Global Economic Competitiveness,” explores the role of artificial intelligence investment on economic standing, in addition to evaluating Russia’s AI strategy and highlighting areas for improvement. The study analyzes Russian AI policies and investments and integrates the findings with global trends to gauge Russia’s position in the global landscape.

The research reveals that while Russia has intensified efforts to harness AI technologies, substantial gaps persist in comparison to leading nations. Its findings highlight the importance of education in nurturing AI talent, balanced public-private investments in fostering innovation, and global collaboration in growing technological advancement.

Chellasamy conducted the research during a two-month break between jobs, and she says she found the experience to be rewarding.

“It’s always exciting to work with people who challenge you,” she says.

The conference offered Chellasamy a unique opportunity to engage with leaders in tech. Meeting Jaimie Engstrom, CIO of Caterpillar, Inc., she says, was particularly inspiring, as Engstrom’s presentation aligned closely with Chellasamy’s own interests in how technology can drive value in the corporate sphere.

“I was really able to relate to what she was saying from the corporate side,” Chellasamy says

Chellasamy says she would like to explore AI and how it can be used in cybersecurity further as she moves along in her professional career.

And Chellasamy is excited to explore the intersection between AI and cybersecurity, and she has interest in cloud security and data privacy.

“Privacy is becoming increasingly important as new laws emerge in the United States, and globally, and organizations work to meet their criteria,” she says.

This passion for privacy has roots in her undergraduate studies at Illinois Tech, where she was drawn to the idea of a career that protects others.

“Helping others is at the core of what we do,” she says. “Our work can positively impact millions. It’s incredibly fulfilling to know that I’m contributing to a safer, more secure digital world.”