Voices of Nium with Karthik Venkatachalam S.

In the third feature of “Voices of Nium”, Karthik, who is based in Chennai, which is situated in Central South-Eastern India, shares a window into his world of cybersecurity. He tells us why Nium is comparable to Korean band, BTS, and explains why he believes it’s essential to have multicultural team members to complete the Nium pie. 

It’s certainly a compliment to be compared to James Bond, but I’d say that we play more of a protection role vs. a spy role. In a nutshell, cybersecurity is about ensuring that our computer systems, networks, software, hardware, and data are guarded from digital threats, attacks, and unauthorized access. We collaborate with various people both internally and externally to make this happen and focus on the processes and technologies which are designed to prevent damaging and malicious cyber activity. 

The impact of cybersecurity within Nium, as with most global businesses, is complex and is sometimes unseen and unheard, but most definitely always present.  

You mentioned James Bond earlier, but maybe Batman is more appropriate, in this case. Operating behind the scenes and fighting cybercrime! Haha. 

Raj Viswanathan is our Chief Information Security Officer at Nium, and his strategy largely straddles 6 core aspects to support our ecosystem: 

I think Nium’s biggest stand out asset as an employer is that we equip our team with state-of-the-art tech tools, which not only enable us to fulfil our roles more effectively, but also help to establish us as a benchmark cybersecurity team in the international arena. 

In my opinion, Nium is also (by far) the best employer I’ve worked with when it comes to significantly reducing the lead time for software procurement processes, whilst ensuring that software assessments are performed with due diligent calibration.  

I would also say that it’s seldom to get to work with security conscious leaders, who genuinely want to collaborate with us day-in and day-out to improve security best practices internally. Cybersecurity is a collective endeavor, and implementing effective security controls requires cooperation at every level. Nium’ers have an in-built desire to solve complex problems and want to address incidents proactively to keep raising the bar. 

First and foremost, I think the ability to go with the flow and remain calm under pressure is critical at Nium. We’re a very fast-paced, hyper-growth organization and things change frequently. Those who can adapt and be agile will succeed at Nium. We also encourage a solutions-mindset across all business functions, so people who are prepared to blaze their own path and put their hand up to try things that are new and different are recognised and rewarded. We celebrate ‘failure’ because it means you’ve been brave enough to try and move the needle, even if it resulted in learning vs. success. 

I believe that Nium’s awards and recognitions are a critical catalyst in promoting our high-performance culture. They’re celebrated on a company-wide level and truly make team members feel appreciated.