ScubaTx was founded in 2020 as a spin-out from Newcastle University. In April 2023, developing a next generation organ preservation system. 2024 is expected to be a transformational year for the company as we move from a development organisation to one servicing our first customers. My role, as Technical Director at ScubaTx, is focused on the technical oversight of the design and project coordination to deliver a successful pre-production prototype. Rapid prototyping was a core strategy in my previous role CTO of a mobile payments startup, and part of the development ethos I am bringing to ScubaTx .I have 30 years of experience developing safety critical solutions in highly regulated industries including defense, nuclear, transport, satellite communications and banking payments.

Ethi-Cy focus on cyber security projects, typically Crypto, AI and IoT, with an ethical focus. We are currently working on the ScubaTx Organ Preservation device https://scubatx.com and researching the potential use of AI image processing to find humans in a sparse landscape in collaboration with local Mountain Rescue Teams (MRT).I have a PhD in Ethnical Hacking and 36 years working in safety critical systems and the financial payments (retail banking and crypto payments).History Ethical projects before Ethi-Cy Ethical hacking of the credit / debit card payments system Helping to reduce credit and debit card fraud by identifying potential vulnerabilities in the card payment system during the crucial period when contactless and mobile payments were being introduces. This work led to myself and Dr Leo Freitas creating a university spinout company helping Visa / Mastercard with a security review in next generation of contactless and mobile payments protocols. Research papers - https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/author/1315051 Harvesting high value foreign currency transactions 2 Does the online card payment landscape facilitate fraud? 3 Risks of contactless verify PIN 4 Contactless payments: usability at the cost of security?Hyper Privacy for Victims of Domestic ViolenceNew technologies such as smart phones, remote cameras and your internet search history have created new ways for abusers to monitor and control victims of domestic violence. Our brief was to create innovative technologies that would redress the balance back in favor of the victims whilst being easy to use and very hard to spot by their abusers.Research papers - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7mHrFakAAAAJ&hl=en1. Electronic footprints in the sand: Technologies for assisting domestic violence survivors2. Sensible privacy: how we can protect domestic violence survivors without facilitating misuse3. Digital strategy for the social inclusion of survivors of domestic violence

After 2 and half years as CTO at Maxa Group I am taking a break to go flying and recharge my batteries. Going to pass the pilot exams that I have been putting off. Also going to head to Lasham to do some good old fashioned stick and rudder sailplane gliding (expand my horizons).

As CTO of Maxa Online Contactless I have progressed the product from a POC demo app to a production ready payments solution, with the appropriate security design and payments industry certifications. In a short time from a standing start, we have created a dynamically scalable AWS cloud platform capable of handling millions of transactions per day securely. I am very proud of the team I have built and the product we have created.Maxa Online Contactless is an AWS cloud based hyper-scalable network of TapToPhone POS terminals.I am a hands-on CTO, getting involved in the coding of all aspects of the platform, the AWS servers, kernels for the POS terminal and Android TTP handset code. Implemented Agile project management with Kanban stand-up meetings. Implemented both local and remote working practices and project control / tracking tools (especially useful when Covid 19 changed the way we all work overnight). I have been impressed with how the team adapted to remote working, productivity and team cohesion have been maintained.Key skills:• 100% belief in the Maxa product• Ability to adapt rapidly, this is start-up we make up the roadmap as we go, and adapt where required.• Building a strong cohesive team on a lean budget• Ownership of the technical design from the high-level architecture, down to fine details. • Hands on with the coding, gives better insight to the technical challenges and is sometimes the only way of bridging resourcing gaps in a short time frame.Building technology to help solve the card-not-present (CNP) challenge. CNP (online payments and telephone payments) now make up over 70% of card fraud. Maxa Online Contactless combines security with useability making it a unique solution for CNP.

Cyber security specialist focusing on emerging payment technologies mobile,Tap to Phone, cloud payments an Open Banking.- Consultancy for EMVCo and MasterCard (and other card schemes), providing a security review of the proposed next generation global payment infrastructure (EMV 2nd Generation) prior to release.- Providing consultancy on emerging payments technologies, PSD2, digital payments, to the retail banking industry− Providing cybersecurity seminars and invited talks for law enforcement / security agencies, including giving a payments security masterclass at GCHQs CyberUK 2016 - Analysing 3D Secure rules based fraud detection, in collaboration with a major UK bank, to see how AI could reduce false positive rate− Cybersecurity consultancy and payments innovation consultancy for the banking / financial sector and financial technology companies.- Systems architecture and design advice for a payments archive and reconciliation at ANZ.

Security analysis of EMV 2nd Generation protocol specifications for EMVCo (Security Working Group / Next Gen Task Force) Analysis of contactless kernel specifications for individual payment schemes.Audit preparation, review of documentation and procedures across for Network International across all of their sub-divisions/operating territories Dubai, Egypt, South Africa and Jordan.

Current Projects- EMV 2nd Generation protocol security analysis- Access Control Live Lab, investigating innovative user authentication using mobile, wearable and IoT technologies.- Adversarial learning techniques and their use against online payments and 3D Secure. My work is attracting funding to the University from non-traditional sources such as EMVCo. Increasing the impact of our research by translating to industry applications. Project partners include, EMVCo, UK Cards, Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, CESG, Northumbria Police, Criminal Justice Board.I have first author papers at leading international cyber security conferences CCS’14 and FC’13.The real world impact of my work has resulted in invitations to speak at industry cyber security conferences; FINSEC 2017, CyberUK in Practice 2016, College of Policing 2015, North East Fraud Forum 2014 and 2013, Metropolitan Police Workshops 2014, Global Uncertainties Conference 2014 My work has also featured in TV news and BBC radio InterviewsEthical disclosure is a key part of my research, informing financial regulators, law enforcement and tier 1 financial institutions of my research results at least 6 months prior to publication.

My PhD research investigates the question “Contactless payments; has security been sacrificed for usability?” specifically do the features which make contactless and mobile payments more convenient and user friendly negatively impact the security of the EMV payment system. This research combines abstract formal modelling, software emulation and practical demonstrations. This links the research theory, which identifies vulnerabilities in the payment system, to demonstrating the practical impact in a way that is relevant to both the payment industry and the public. Publications from this research include Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2013 and Computer and Communications Security 2014. In this research I have collaborated, prior to publication, with the UK Cards Association, the FCA, Visa, MasterCard and a number of major UK banks to ensure responsible disclosure of my research results.

"Getting out of the lab and talking to people" - exploring the business potential for a new spin-out company based on our work on PSD2 and EMV 2nd Generation.I have 3 months (Jan,Feb,March 2018) travelling the world talking to as many payment innovators and Banks as I possibly can to find out 1. what they want from PSD2 payment innovation 2. how the our technology can help Banks and Fintechs get to market faster with innovative payments products ? 3. what are the security and privacy impacts of PSD2

− Customer facing sales role designing solutions for potential clients. − e-Commerce solutions, document case management, workflow, EAI and middleware technologies.

− Formulating a strategy to market the resources of Austrapay’s cheque image archive as an outsourced archive solution to tier 2 banks.− Formulating cost models to support a successful marketing strategy. − Identifying new clients for the Archive.

− Technology lead on the Bank of America national payments archive project (total value $100million). − Providing Bank of America with a single point of contact for all solutions design, implementation and deployment decisions and responsible for capturing all of the client’s technical requirements. − Co-ordinating the efforts of our software teams in Dallas, San Francisco, Washington and ensuring that all of the elements fitted together into a seamless solution.

− Developing new business opportunities in workflow, document management, cheque archive and document imaging for tier 1 financial institutions in Australia and the Pacific Rim. − Project management, systems design and delivery of the final solutions for these projects. − Consultancy embedded in the client team for several months, analysing their business processes, advising on technology solutions and the ROI / costing models for the proposed solutions.

− Systems design and project management of document management, workflow and image capture solutions for tier 1 financial institutions in the UK. − Led the teams to develop two new products at BancTec UK. (1) ImageFirst Vote capture product (2) ImageFirst Signature verification product.

− Analyse and verify code from a nuclear power station control system, mathematically modelling the functionality described in the specification using the MALPAS verification tool.

− Safety critical distributed systems in the defence sector, transport sector and satellite communications. Including the design of a hazardous materials control system, fault diagnosis of a railway carriage braking system and protocol analysis of a satellite telecommunications system.

− Responsible for the systems design of a safety critical materials movement control system, verification of the design using formal methods. − Maintenance and improvement of the control software for isotopic mass spectrometers.