Payatu bandits

Meet the crew that does the breaking

Payatu's research reputation is carried by people, not a logo. The Bandits publish advisories under their own names, build open tools, and teach at security conferences. When you hire Payatu, these are the people on your engagement.
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The origin

Why do we call ourselves "Bandits"?

We wanted one word for the way this team works. Most of the good ones were taken, and the accurate one had a bad reputation: bandit, in its usual context, is not a compliment. Three of its traits fit too well to ignore. They are now, quite literally, what we hire for.
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Curiosity that does not clock out.

02

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but if focused on the right place, it can do wonders.”
A Bandit opens the device before the manual and keeps pulling until the thing gives up its design. Most of our advisories started exactly there.
Silhouette of a person in a dark hoodie surrounded by streaks of orange and yellow light with blurred, ghost-like figures in the background, creating a dynamic, abstract effect.
Curiosity that does not clock out.

02

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but if focused on the right place, it can do wonders.”
A Bandit opens the device before the manual and keeps pulling until the thing gives up its design. Most of our advisories started exactly there.
Silhouette of a person in a dark hoodie surrounded by streaks of orange and yellow light with blurred, ghost-like figures in the background, creating a dynamic, abstract effect.
Curiosity that does not clock out.

02

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but if focused on the right place, it can do wonders.”
A Bandit opens the device before the manual and keeps pulling until the thing gives up its design. Most of our advisories started exactly there.
The origin

Why do we call ourselves "Bandits"?

We wanted one word for the way this team works. Most of the good ones were taken, and the accurate one had a bad reputation: bandit, in its usual context, is not a compliment. Three of its traits fit too well to ignore. They are now, quiteliterally, what we hire for.
Silhouetted person surrounded by multiple blurred, fiery orange figures on a dark blue background, creating an abstract, glowing effect.
Curiosity that does not clock out.
“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but if focused on the right place, it can do wonders.”
A Bandit opens the device before the manual and keeps pulling until the thing gives up its design. Most of our advisories started exactly there.
01
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The crew reviews everything.
“We Come! We Hack! We Protect! Together, Always!”
No finding leaves the lab on one person's word. Bandits test each other's work the way they test targets: thoroughly, and out loud.
02
Silhouettes of people standing and talking in a dimly lit room with a large bright orange rectangular light in the background.
Rules bent, ethics intact.
“We go where no one has gone before to find what no one has found before!”
Undocumented corners are where a Bandit works best. Scope and disclosure stay sacred; the route to the finding does not.
03
Meet the crew

The Bandits

Each Bandit gets their own page: the advisories they are credited on, the talks they gave, what they wrote. Click through and check the work.
Topic
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All
Bandits

Akanksha Prasad

Co-Lead - Web Application
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Akanksha Prasad

Co-Lead - Web Application
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Bandits

Aakanksha Sharma

HR Head
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Aakanksha Sharma

HR Head
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Bandits

Akshay Khilari

Security Consultant
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Akshay Khilari

Security Consultant
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Bandits
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Ali Jujara

Tower Lead - Mobile Application Security
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Ali Jujara

Tower Lead - Mobile Application Security
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Bandits

Amandeep Singh Banga

Mobile - Senior Security Consultant
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Amandeep Singh Banga

Mobile - Senior Security Consultant
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Bandits

Atharva Ganeshkar

Ops Head
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Atharva Ganeshkar

Ops Head
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FIELD GUIDE

How to spot a Payatu Bandit.

If you meet one at a conference, in your codebase, or across a scoping call, here is how to make the identification.
Digital orange silhouette of a standing man viewed from the side, composed of small square pixels, with some scattered red and gray pixels inside.
Digital graphic showing text 'ENTITY FOUND' with a red dot and a red rectangle below containing the name 'PAYATU BANDIT' on a black background, alongside an orange pixelated image of a person or figure on the left.
Text layout showing classifications and habitat of a group: Kingdom Animalia, Species Homo sapiens, Family Payatu, Primary Habitat Payatu Research Labs, Also Found In client engagements and security conference stages, Population 150 and Growing.
Stylized pixel art of a woman with mid-length curly hair, wearing a fitted jacket and skirt, standing facing forward.
Graphic with an orange silhouette of a person made of dots on the left, and white text on black background on the right reading 'ENTITY FOUND' with a red dot indicator and 'PAYATU BANDIT' highlighted in a red rectangle.
Text on a black background listing traits: Personality - Curious, trustworthy, keen to show exactly how it broke; Superpowers - Hacking; Likes - Finding and fixing vulnerabilities, giving the research back to the community; Dislikes - Unethical exploits, findings you cannot act on.
FIELD GUIDE

How to spot a Payatu Bandit.

If you meet one at a conference, in your codebase, or across a scoping call, here is how to make the identification.
Digital orange silhouette of a standing man viewed from the side, composed of small square pixels, with some scattered red and gray pixels inside.
Red dot followed by the text 'ENTITY FOUND' in white next to a red rectangle containing 'PAYATU BANDIT' in white, with stylized brown pixelated figures on an orange background to the left.
Table listing biological taxonomy and details with categories and values as follows: Kingdom - Animalia, Species - Homo sapiens, Family - Payatu, Primary Habitat - Payatu Research Labs, Also Found In - Client engagements and security conference stages, Population - 150 and Growing.
Stylized pixel art of a woman with mid-length curly hair, wearing a fitted jacket and skirt, standing facing forward.
Graphic with an orange silhouette of a person made of dots on the left, and white text on black background on the right reading 'ENTITY FOUND' with a red dot indicator and 'PAYATU BANDIT' highlighted in a red rectangle.
Text on a black background listing traits: Personality - Curious, trustworthy, keen to show exactly how it broke; Superpowers - Hacking; Likes - Finding and fixing vulnerabilities, giving the research back to the community; Dislikes - Unethical exploits, findings you cannot act on.
What the crew ships

The work is public. Check it.

Each download turns a leadership conversation into something concrete: what a red team engagement owes its sponsor, what an IPO demands of security, what to table at the next review.
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100+ public advisories
Vulnerability research across web, mobile, firmware, and cloud, each written up and credited to the Bandit who found it.
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Tools anyone can run

EXPLIoT for IoT testing, BugBazaar and DVAPI as deliberately vulnerable practice targets, securecode.wiki for the fixes.
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200+ talks and trainings

Black Hat, DEF CON, HITB, and c0c0n, plus the two conferences Payatu runs: Nullcon and hardwear.io.
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Join the crew

Think you’re a Bandit?

If your instinct is to open things up and write down what you find, the interview will feel familiar. Show us the work; the resume can catch up.
See Open Roles
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About Payatu
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What Bandits Get

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Your name in the credits of the advisories you research
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A learning reward of up to USD 1,000
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Work on global projects and conferences
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A hardware lab to break things in