Sai Prathyusha Illendula
SC-200 & Security+ Certified Cybersecurity Analyst | Microsoft Sentinel • Splunk • KQL | SOC Monitoring, Incident Response & Threat Detection | M.S. Cybersecurity
Houston, TX — Open to SOC Analyst roles across the United States: remote, hybrid, and on-site. Open to 24x7 SOC shift work.
What I bring.
The three things a SOC hiring manager is screening for.
01 — Triage under pressure
High-volume alert queues triaged with MITRE ATT&CK and Kill Chain analysis — real threats found, noise escalated correctly, nothing dropped.
02 — Detections that explain themselves
From KQL hunting queries to an explainable-AI intrusion detector — I build and tune detections a reviewer can understand and trust.
03 — Documentation that holds up
Clear findings, clean escalation summaries, honest dashboards. The incident report is part of the response, not an afterthought.
Experience.
Where I've done the work.
Nov 2025 – Jan 2026 · Remote
Cyber Security Analyst (Internship, Lab SOC) — Excelerate
- Investigated incidents in Splunk SIEM, correlating auth logs with network indicators to determine scope and impact
- Cut false-positive alerts 25% through correlation-rule tuning and evidence-based validation
- Ran Nessus/Nmap vulnerability assessments; tracked findings through remediation
- Screened phishing emails; hardened Linux endpoints with default-deny firewall rules
Jul 2021 – Apr 2023 · Remote
Software Engineer — Hexaware Technologies
- Traced anomalous behavior in application and system logs; documented findings
- Validated access controls, user permissions, and input handling in security-focused testing
- Verified fixes with development teams and closed the loop on findings
- Screened suspicious emails for phishing indicators (spoofed senders, malicious links/attachments)
Skills.
The toolkit I reach for daily.
SIEM & Detection
Microsoft Sentinel · Splunk · KQL · Wazuh · Suricata · OSSEC
Incident Response
Alert triage · Investigation · Containment · Escalation · MITRE ATT&CK
Vulnerability Mgmt
Nessus · Nmap · Finding validation · Remediation tracking
Network Security
Wireshark · tcpdump · TCP/IP · DNS · Firewalls · VPN
Scripting
Python · Bash · PowerShell · SQL
Frameworks
NIST CSF · CIS Controls · ISO 27001 · OWASP Top 10
Featured Projects.
Research with real detection value.
Real-Time Intrusion Detection with Explainable AI
Master's project · University of Houston
Built an IDS using Random Forest on the CICIDS 2017 dataset — covering DDoS, botnet, brute-force, and web attacks — and applied LIME so every detection decision comes with a plain-language explanation. Detection you can't explain is detection you can't trust in a SOC.
Python Random Forest LIME / XAI CICIDS 2017
SOC Security Monitoring Dashboard
Built a SOC monitoring dashboard over 200 simulated security events, with detection rules flagging brute-force attempts, repeated failed logins, and account lockouts — mapped to MITRE ATT&CK T1110 (Brute Force). Built to show how a SOC analyst spots, triages, and escalates real attack patterns, not just raw alerts.
Simulated dataset: 200 events — 102 successful logins, 66 failed logins, 13 alerts (1 high, 3 medium, 9 low).
Python Streamlit Pandas Plotly
Credentials.
Certifications
Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate (SC-200)
CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) — issued Oct 2026
Education
M.S. Cybersecurity — University of Houston, 2026 · GPA 3.9
B.Tech Computer Science — Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, 2021