CyberMindr CTO On Fatigue, Dark Web Forums And The Future Of Cybersecurity

Sudheer Kanumalli, CTO of CyberMindr

Source: CyberMindr

Cybersecurity today is no more just about firewalls and passwords. It is about people, human behavior, and the psychology of risk. From employees drowning in endless security alerts to hackers casually trading playbooks on dark web forums, the threats we face are no longer distant or abstract. 

In fact, experts warn that “cybersecurity fatigue” when users tune out after too many pop-ups and warnings, can be just as dangerous as having no security at all. At the same time, entire underground networks thrive in plain sight, where attackers discuss what to target, how to exploit it, and sometimes even why. 

Against this backdrop, Sudheer Kanumalli, CTO of CyberMindr, shares his insights with us. In this article, he is unpacking how today’s threats really work, what we can learn from the dark web, and the idea that went onto building CyberMindr. 

Before we talk about solutions, let’s talk about the threat itself. What do you see as the most underestimated cyber risks people and organizations face today? 

Sudheer: The most underestimated risk is assuming attacks only come from obvious places or that compliance means security. The real danger is in overlooked entry points, like abandoned cloud assets, forgotten subdomains, API endpoints, unsupervised third-party vendors. Most breaches happen not because the technology fails, but because organizations underestimate their own attack surface and how persistent real attackers can be. 

With CyberMindr our focus is on continuously mapping every exposed asset, even the forgotten ones, so companies know their weak spots before attackers do. 

For someone outside the tech world, the jargon can be confusing. How do you explain the difference between a minor cyber incident and a serious breach? 

Sudheer: It’s like the difference between a car getting scratched versus being stolen. A minor incident is when there is a harmless glitch or small error that doesn’t affect your valuables or reputation. A serious breach is when someone actually gets inside, and accesses your personal data, credentials, or assets which can cause lasting damage to your business. 

That’s exactly the difference between an irrelevant exposure and an exploitable exposure. Our scans include validating every vulnerability for exploitability, so teams don’t see “scratches” everywhere, but know when someone could really “steal the car.” 

We often hear that “humans are the weakest link” in cybersecurity. From your experience, what patterns do you see in how people fall for attacks? 

Sudheer: People fall for attacks when social engineering exploits everyday patterns. You see an urgent-looking email, a link that mimics something familiar, or even a message from a known partner, the first instinct is to respond quickly and get done with it. Being attentive is the first rule of being secure. Most of all, breaches happen when people are rushed, tired, or overloaded with too many things, making it easy to miss the discrepancies.  

The “cybersecurity fatigue” problem is real. Why can too many alerts be as dangerous as none at all? 

Sudheer: As I mentioned earlier, attention is the key to security. So naturally, alert fatigue is a silent killer in cybersecurity. When people see hundreds of notifications every day, most are ignored or dismissed. The one critical warning gets buried in the noise. Too many alerts train users to ignore the whole system, leaving gaps that real attackers exploit. 

CyberMindr filters out noise and ranks vulnerabilities by business impact. Instead of 1,000 low-value alerts, teams see the 5 issues that could actually lead to a breach, enabling proactive security fixes. 

So, if overload is part of the problem, how can security systems cut through the noise and highlight what truly matters? 

Sudheer: For a strong security posture prioritizing remediation is equally important as detecting vulnerabilities. Systems need to validate which exposures are really exploitable before alerting teams, so the focus stays on genuine risks. Automation helps, but whatever platform you might be using should rank threats by business impact, not just technical severity, making it clear what deserves action now. 

CyberMindr runs attacker-style validation automatically and then tells you, “Here’s the real hole in your defenses, here’s how it can be exploited, and how to fix it.” That assurance changes how teams act on alerts. 

You’ve also studied how attackers operate. When you look inside dark web forums, what actually goes on there before a hack takes place? 

Sudheer: Inside dark web forums, attackers trade stolen credentials, exploit kits, and information about vulnerable companies. There’s a whole economy built around selling access to cloud dashboards, streaming platforms, or payroll systems. Typically, before a hack, attackers will buy credentials, test which one's work, discuss weak spots, and sometimes run small probes to see if anyone is watching. By monitoring these forums, defenders can spot early warning signs long before an incident goes public. 

CyberMindr includes dark web monitoring, so if your company’s credentials show up for sale, you know before an attacker tries to use them. 

Let’s bring it back to the everyday world. Small and medium businesses are often easy targets. If you had to give them a three-step survival guide for cyber hygiene, what would it be? 

Sudheer: The first step is knowing everything your organization has exposed on the internet — every website, database, vendor, or cloud service. Second, enable multi-factor authentication everywhere possible. Third, continuously train your team to recognize social engineering attacks like phishing, vishing, baiting and more. Start simple and eventually make security part of the team conversations. 

For smaller teams, CyberMindr automates this discovery, showing every exposed asset and validating which ones are exploitable, so nothing slips through the cracks. 

Looking further ahead, what do you think will be the five big cybersecurity challenges in the coming years that people aren’t preparing for yet? 

Sudheer: 

AI-driven attacks that target and personalize scams at a scale. 

Supply chain compromise, your partners’ security is your risk. 

Deepfake-driven disinformation and reputation attacks. 

Mass credential leaks becoming automated account takeovers. 

Targeted attacks timed for vulnerable release windows or events. 

When you set out to build CyberMindr, what core gap in the market were you responding to? 

Sudheer: CyberMindr was built to solve the problem of endless false positives and missed real threats. Security teams were buried in noise, with tools that simply scanned issues but didn’t validate if they mattered. Our approach was to create automated, attacker-informed validation, showing companies what’s truly exploitable, and how to fix it fast, so teams get assurance rather than more alerts. 

And finally, on a personal note, what drew you into this field, and what keeps you motivated in a space that often feels like preparing for the worst every day? 

Sudheer: I am drawn by the challenge and the impact. Early in my career, seeing how real attacks bypassed tools and exploited simple human errors made me determined to build solutions that go beyond compliance. What keeps me motivated is knowing that every improvement I make helps organizations protect their creativity, reputation, and people turning cybersecurity from a burden into an enabler for better business. That’s also why CyberMindr exists, to make defense smarter, not harder.