From cloud migrations to AI-augmented development, how Invent’s DevOps chief Iliia Karin infuses security into every layer of infrastructure.
Iliia Karin, Head of DevOps at Invent, a DevOps and security specialist, has led infrastructure transformation initiatives at Nokia, Gazprom corporation and VTB/Innotech.
He recently re-architected Invent’s wealth-tech platform with DevSecOps practices, delivering a 64% cost saving through secure automation.
He also co-authored a 2025 peer-reviewed paper on adversarial AI threats in software development. In this interview, Karin discusses his journey and how he embeds security into every project.
Q: You’ve worked across telecommunications, energy and banking before Invent. How did those experiences shape your approach?
Karin: I started my DevOps career on cloud projects at Nokia, then helped modernize infrastructure at Gazprom corporation. Later, at VTB’s Innotech, I worked on updating their banking systems. Each role taught me the same lesson: infrastructure must be both agile and secure.
His cross-industry background has been invaluable. In telecom and energy (at Nokia and Gazprom), Karin handled massive deployments and learned about scale.
In finance (VTB/Innotech), he dealt with strict compliance and data protection. “Every step showed me that developers have to take security seriously,” he says. That insight guides his work today at Invent.
Q: As Invent’s DevOps lead, you drove a major overhaul of the company’s wealth-management platform. What was your strategy?
Karin: We treated security as built-in, not bolted-on. We rewrote our CI/CD pipelines so that every deployment ran automated security scans and compliance checks. Infrastructure as Code let us enforce safe defaults at scale without slowing delivery.
Under Karin’s direction, the team integrated automated vulnerability scans, strict configuration management, and continuous monitoring into the development pipeline.
He recalls automating routine maintenance and security tasks, which “eliminated many manual steps,” he notes. “The result,” he says, “was safer software delivered faster.” By automating provisioning and right-sizing cloud resources, the overhaul cut Invent’s platform costs dramatically.
In fact, the DevSecOps transformation produced roughly a 64% reduction in cloud and development expenses over the following year.
“DevSecOps isn’t just adding tools — it’s a culture change. Your developers must own security as much as features, or you’re just pushing vulnerabilities further down the road.” — Iliia Karin, Head of DevOps, Invent
This philosophy of shared responsibility earned Karin industry recognition. His work at the intersection of fintech and security landed him on ThinkAdvisor’s “Luminaries” list and a shortlisting for a WealthManagement.com innovation award.
But above awards, he says the real payoff is trust: “Seeing those automated checks stop threats before they reach customers is the reward,” he explains.
Q: You recently published on adversarial AI in DevSecOps. What new risks did you uncover?
Karin: We found that AI assistants like GitHub Copilot introduce novel attack surfaces. In our paper, we analyzed cases such as a prompt-injection flaw in Copilot (CVE-2025-53773) and supply-chain exploits via malicious code suggestions.
These incidents show that AI can turn what’s supposed to help developers into an attack vector. Karin co-authored “Adversarial Threat Vectors in AI-Augmented Software Development,” which appeared in European Science (2025).
The paper examines recent exploits that “illustrate how prompt injection and AI poisoning can transform passive data into active attack vectors,” as its abstract notes. Such examples reinforce a broader trend: OWASP now ranks prompt injections as the No.1 emerging AI vulnerability.
Q: How do development teams defend against these AI-powered threats?
Karin: We treat AI tools like any other dependency: we rigorously vet them and apply the principle of least privilege. We also build guardrails. For instance, we sanitize inputs to AI assistants and use secondary checks on their outputs. Crucially, developers always review AI-generated code carefully – trust but verify.
The urgency of this approach is growing. Industry surveys report that roughly two-thirds of firms now use generative AI in some function, so risks will only multiply. Karin stresses that while AI can boost productivity, it also “adds another layer we must secure.”
He cites examples like zero-click exfiltration attacks and data poisoning that demand new defenses. The key, he says, is to evolve a security mindset in parallel with new technology.
Q: Beyond DevOps, you’ve led cloud migrations and even IoT projects. What common principles apply?
Mr. Karin: The contexts change – IoT devices, banking systems, cloud data centers – but the security principles stay the same. In any project, we assume a breach is possible and design multiple defense layers. In one IoT rollout I managed, every device had unique credentials and was segmented on the network. In cloud projects, we enforce zero-trust networking and automated patching.
He cautions that any unsecured component can jeopardize everything. “I always ask: if an attacker reached one part of the system, can they pivot to the rest?” says Karin. If the answer is yes, he immediately adds another security layer.
For example, at Invent he ensures every new server or container is automatically configured with secure defaults – firewalls, IAM roles, encryption keys – right when it spins up. This way, the platform can scale rapidly, “but never at the expense of exposure,” he emphasizes.
Q: What advice do you give organizations aiming to secure their infrastructure today?
Mr. Karin: Begin by understanding your risks at every level, and make security easy for teams. Empower developers and operators with automated tools – static analysis, secrets managers, compliance scanning – so they can fix issues early.
And foster a culture where finding and fixing a vulnerability in testing is seen as a success, not a setback.
He often sums it up as a shift-left mantra: “A bug caught in testing is far cheaper to fix than one found post-deployment.”
By embedding security into every workflow and training teams to look for problems proactively, organizations build resilience. Karin believes that vigilant, empowered teams – not one-off fixes – are the best defense against today’s threats.
In closing, Iliia Karin’s career exemplifies how blending operational expertise with security leadership can transform an organization’s resilience.
His hands-on DevSecOps overhauls and cutting-edge AI-security research underscore a simple truth: integrated security isn’t optional, it’s foundational.
In an era of rapid cloud adoption and evolving threats, Karin’s approach is a reminder that robust, secure infrastructure is the cornerstone of innovation.
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