Employee Spotlight - Mark

How long have you been at SYTECH?

15 years

What interests you about Cyber Security?

I love problem-solving, especially where there is a technical exploitation element. Having trained extensively in computer forensics, I joined SYTECH in 2008 and went on to become Head of Department as a Digital Forensic Manager, overseeing hundreds of digital investigations on behalf of the Criminal Justice System, whilst managing a team of up to 40 analysts over five UK laboratories.?

I started venturing into Cyber Security in 2019, where I found my skills were transferable into the Digital Forensics Incident Response side of Cyber Security. From there, I studied the wider areas of Cyber, such as penetration testing and vulnerability management, to understand the proactive side of Cyber, as opposed to just the reactive.

In 2021, I started a team of Cyber Security analysts, which are now trained in both attacking, and protecting security systems, and we have subsequently become an IASME certification body for both Cyber Essentials, and Cyber Essentials +.?

What does a typical day in your role look like?

I’ll typically start the day by reviewing if any security incidents have been reported, either internally or externally through client communication and by catching up with the IT team who constantly monitor our Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool.

Following that, I’ll review any Cyber Essential quote requests, and assign out desktop assessments that require completion to our Cyber analysts.

My days can be quite varied, depending on the project work we have on, but afternoons can be anything from completing a security assessment, recovering data from client hardware, liaising with a client to discuss their needs, or reviewing and updating internal information security policies and cyber best practice guidelines.

Share a favourite success story or accomplishment from your time at SYTECH

SYTECH began a journey to become an ISO17025 accredited Digital Forensics organisation in 2016. This was a continual and iterative process, constantly expanding our scope of accreditation to new digital forensic tools and methods as well as to other sites across the UK. The culmination of this was the accreditation of our end-to-end process across 5 sites in 2019. I am proud to have been a member of the team that achieved this milestone.