Curious who's on the other end of the phone or helping you through your Cyber Essentials certification? Find out through our Meet the Team series.

Q: What is your role at ID Cyber?

A: Cyber Essentials Assessor and Technical Editor

Q: When did you join ID Cyber?

A: November 2022

Q: Can you describe your role at ID Cyber?

A: Most of my time is spent assessing Cyber Essentials applications and supporting applicants through the process. I also write and refine documentation, articles, and social media posts. Finally, I am an organiser and host of the monthly ID Cyber Sessions series, in which we interview people within and/or of interest to the cyber security community.

Q: What's your favourite thing about working at ID Cyber?

A: It's a recurring answer for this question, but my teammates! They're friendly, supportive, and always happy to brainstorm anything tricky that comes up.

Q: How did you end up working in cyber security?

A: I focused on linguistics at university and then spent half a decade working in publishing, but always had a side-interest in security. I used my annual leave to tag along to conferences, learned things for fun on TryHackMe, made friends within the industry, and, just when I began to feel the time was right for me to leave publishing, the stars aligned and a suitable post became available at ID Cyber. I've been here over a year now and have never regretted taking the leap.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: Reading, video games, and music. I'm that person who takes five books on a weekend trip 'just in case', who'll happily plough 70 hours into a PlayStation game and then go straight into New Game+, and who can't stop acquiring instruments (everything from piccolo and piano to didgeridoo and viola), despite the fact they are most definitely amateur at the vast majority of them.

Q: What's your favourite dinosaur?

A: Since I work with words, I should probably say Thesaurus... but it's Compsognathus. They're about the same height as a chicken so I think they're really cute (if a little bitey).

Q: Is there a book, blog, or podcast you'd like to recommend?

A: Jamie Bartlett's 'The Missing Cryptoqueen' — a really engaging overview of a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme and its founder, who's one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted

Curious who's on the other end of the phone or helping you through your Cyber Essentials certification? Find out through our Meet the Team series.

Q: What is your role at ID Cyber?

A: Cyber Essentials and Cyber Assurance Assessor

Q: When did you join ID Cyber?

A: July 2023

Q: Can you describe your role at ID Cyber?

A: Though I'm no longer the newbie, I am relatively fresh here! I am one of the Cyber Essentials and Cyber Assurance assessors at ID Cyber. As the business expands, I'm on the hunt for innovative ideas to inspire and develop training for new starts. I'm always on the lookout for ways to streamline processes or tasks 'cause... Why not make something easier if it can be?!

Q: What's your favourite thing about working at ID Cyber?

A: Straight out the door, and I know almost everyone so far has said this but... it's the team. The culture, the community. We've really got something special at ID Cyber. It's the kind of place you imagine an office to be before you're a "grown-up".

By far, the best place I've ever worked and I'm practically just in the door!

Q: How did you end up working in cyber security?

A: I used to work as an insurance fraud investigator but the way my brain processes information makes me want to investigate everything deeper, deeper, and deeper. At 27 I thought it was too late for me to change careers or reskill. I was wrong.

I'd always regretted not going to university and then lockdown hit. Finally, enough time to focus on improving me! I knew I had to find something that'd engage my brain and activate that neurodivergent hyperfocus superpower. For me, that was cyber security!

Q: What advice do you have for anyone interested in working in cyber security?

A: It's a daunting sounding industry and it sounds impenetrable from the outside but I'd start with local events, read things online, keep on top of what's happening in the news. Or come along to Hack Thursdays — come meet some of the people in the industry and listen to what they have to say!

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: What spare time? Ha!

If I was to list everything I try to do you might be reading this for a long time. I've got an amazing wee fashionable whippet called Fran who demands a lot of attention and cuddles (which I'm only too happy to give), I'm re-learning how to play guitar, I love going to the gym, I'm trying to cram as many different languages into my brain as humanly possible and my wife and I love to absolutely binge watch thriller shows. As the dark nights start to creep in I'm reading more books than I could possibly keep track of!

Q: What’s your favourite genre of music?

A: I truly love every kind of music but my absolute favourite is any form of extreme metal. Anything that sounds like a chainsaw in a bin, falling down some stairs... during a demolition. Pure, cacophonous noise. It sings to my soul!

Q: Who's your favourite superhero?

A: THOR! The God of Thunder. I'm obsessed with anything remotely Viking related. Maybe it's because I grew up by the sea... Maybe I just want my own Mjolnir.