It’s been an excellent half-decade at InfoShelter. We are now 4 strong and looking to recruit further. I set out to assist market research companies with information security and privacy related projects and we have been very fortunate to be able to continue to work with some excellent people at Illuminas, Firefish, IFF Research, The Pineapple Lounge, and Davies+McKerr among others. Also, away from market research we are working with the excellent D2 / Smart Spaces as well as Clare Randal Consulting. Here’s a brief round-up of InfoShelter’s activities and accomplishments to date:• Converted InfoShelter into an IASME certification body for Cyber Essentials and assisted a number of small and medium sized organisations gain certification . • Started working with IFF Research as their Compliance and Data Protection Officer (C&DPO), assisting them with ISO 27001 certification maintenance and general security and privacy related tasks.• After helping Firefish Ltd achieve ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification we continue to assist in the maintenance of their Information Security Management System (ISMS) as well as offering expert privacy advise under the role of Company DPO.• Continue to assist Illuminas maintain their existing ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified Information Security Management System and offer technical advise on their IT infrastructure. We are also continuing the DPO role with them.• Conducted an organisation wide Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for davies+mckerr and continue to assist them with GDPR and cyber security activities.• Assisted D2 / Smart Spaces maintain their ISO 27001 certification as well as providing continual support and advise to their security uplift projects.• Conducted an organisation wide DPIA for Claire Randall Consulting and assisted them with their GDPR preparations.I’m looking forward to working with more agencies in the market research and SMB space and adding value to their information security projects.

During my extremely fulfilling time at CGI, I worked with Government departments and FTSE 250 companies to identify security risks and provide actionable recommendations. My projects included organisation wide Cyber Security reviews, lead roles in ISO/IEC 27001:2013 implementations and audits, risk assessments and security planning for large scale infrastructure migrations, threat modelling and a vulnerability assessment for an entire IoT ecosystem in the energy space.In this role, I worked with and learnt from some excellent professionals, but felt it was time to go back and assist an industry that I spent the biggest part of my career in.

Building on my previous experience as IT Manager, this role was my first foray into Cyber security. We were early to recognise the threats and risks around the data we held, and were among the first Market Research agencies of our size to achieve ISO/IEC 27001 certification. Initially, my role was to lead this project and report directly to the Board, whilst at the same time managing the Illuminas ICT infrastructure in London (including the Engine Rooms viewing facility), New York and Austin. I was later made a member of the partnership for Illuminas LLP. During this time, I became a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a certified ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Lead Auditor. Later, the role developed into a consultative one and I worked with a group Digital Marketing agency, twentysix digital, in the definition and eventual ISO/IEC 27001 certification of their Information Security Management System. During this time, I learned about the agile SDLC model and how to effectively deploy it in a development team.

Illuminas originated from a merger between Incepta Marketing Intelligence and Hauck Research (including Viewpoint fieldwork agency). I was placed in charge of the IT infrastructure (predominantly Wintel) for all elements of the business (5 offices in total) and managed a small team of very talented IT technicians. My team and I were then involved in establishing a Wide Area Network to support this merger. We also supported a technical integration project into the Media Square group of companies, our new parent company.During this time, we were assigned responsibility of the IT management for two other group companies (Beetroot Publications and Lloyd Northover), both predominantly Mac based. We also started testing and eventually standing up virtualised environments to replace old server hardware.Other projects included managing the IT elements of another office move, as well as building another new focus group viewing facility, the Engine Rooms.

During this time, I was promoted from IT Support Executive to IT Manager, which gave me my first experience of managing junior IT technicians.I was responsible for the UK Incepta MI Group ICT infrastructure, including all hardware, software, networks and budgets for Incepta MI as well as The Wire, a c100 unit Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI) and Data Processing company.I also got the opportunity to design the Audio/Visual infrastructure for a brand new focus group viewing facility, Shoreditch Studios.

After graduating from university, I learned how to provide technical support services to a relatively small team of influential market researchers and consultants, most of whom I am fortunate enough to be in touch with today.Projects in this role included building and supporting several PCs for production use, managing the IT elements of an office move, and introducing video edited clips of vox pops and focus groups into research deliverables.