Simon is CEO of Vertical Structure. VSLTD are an independent cyber security advisory company specialising in providing human focused security and penetration testing services for web applications, cloud infrastructure and mobile applications.
Simon is host of the CyberTuesday® podcast
Vertical Structure’s services include security consulting, testing & training to clients through the principles of Prepare, Protect, Persist®
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Simon is chair of the steering committee for NICyber Security Cluster and is dedicated to improving the visibility, and capabilities of Northern Ireland’s Cyber Security organisations on the world’s stage.
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As a cyberfirst ambassador with the National Cyber Security Centre, he works with young people to help provide guidance and mentoring on career options within the cyber security industry.
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Simon has mentored startups at different stages over the last 5 years including with LORCA and CSIT Labs.
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Through membership of the NI Civil Service (NICS)’s strategic level NI Cyber Security Steering Group (NICSSG) he assists with the remit to bring together private, public and 3rd sector into the same space to provide expert opinion and direction. In addition, to assist the development of cyber security capabilities across Northern Ireland; improving the overall cyber security resilience of the province
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He works with organisations to understand their current security posture, their future goals and outlining how to achieve those goals. This includes working with companies on a long-term basis using coaching and mentoring techniques to help drive process improvement and provide external feedback.
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Simon is a prolific public speaker. Recent presentations and panel sessions include “Protecting Manufacturing Assets from the increasing cybercrime threat - strategies to minimise cyber-attack”, and “Vulnerability reporting - the good, the bad and the ugly” at the ONE Conference 2021 in the Netherlands.
Prepare
We help you and your partners to understand how to identify and resolve potential security issues at the earliest stages with hands on ‘hack yourself first’, threat modelling and GDPR compliance workshops as well as security training for non-technical colleagues.
Protect
Using automated and manual penetration testing techniques, we provide a comprehensive security report for your Web and mobile applications, including API testing, and networks. The report highlights potential issues and their resolutions.
Persist
We ensure that your organisation benefits from continual improvements in security levels through information assurance processes, auditing and certification including ISO27001:2013 and Cyber Essentials.
