Profile
Simon McOwan
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About Me:
I live in Cheshire with my wife, daughter, two dogs and two hopless Shetland ponies. Whilst my day job is based in in the zeroes and ones of data, my spare time is all about comic books, movies and restoring classic cars; not a computer in sight!
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My pronouns are:
He/him
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My Work:
I delve deep into cyber security incident data in my role as a digital forensic and incident response specialist.
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I only got into computers as a career option towards the end of my career as a police officer. I developed and progressed to become a digital forensic examiner and then moved out of law enforcement into industry. This allowed me to develop a much broader set of cyber security skills and be exposed to far more variation.
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My Typical Day:
The great thing about incident response is that you never know what your day will hold. A quiet day? Start at 0830 and be done around 1700. Do some training and learn something new, whether it’s coding or a new data examination technique or tool. A busy day? Hold onto your hats as you could find yourself staring at mutiple screen trying to trace the threat actor or travelling off to the customer to assist in person.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d like to start a DFIR (digital forensics and incident response) cyber range for beginners. Focus on the very basics of DFIR to give youngsters a taste of the challenges and insights DFIR offers.
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Education:
My dad’s work move when I was young so I went to a whole variety of schools!
River Primary School, Dover,
Parc Primary School, Holyhead,
Rhoscolyn Primary School, Rhoscolyn,
Rydal Prep School, Colwyn Bay,
Shrewsbury School, Shrewsbury (GCSEs)
St. Gerard’s School, Bangor (A-Levels)
Liverpool John Moore’s University (Degree)
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Qualifications:
9 x GCSEs
2 x A-Levels (Chemistry and Physics; I totally failed maths!)
BSc(Hons) Maritime Business and Management
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional)
Loads of SANS/GIAC cyber security qualifications
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Work History:
This list is as long as my school list. I believed in trying as many things as possible that I thought I may like in order to not miss out on something:
Maritime Underwriter (Royal & SunAlliance)
Field sales (MCI Worldcom)
Director of a DotCom startup (the 2000 dotcom bubble!)
Police Officer (Detective Constable) later specialising in Digital Forensics
National Crime Agency Officer (Digital Forensic examiner)
Operations Manager (Digital Forensics)
Digital Forensics and Incident Response Lead (CGI – Consultancy)
Digital Forensics and Incident Response Specialist (Liberty Global, telecommunications)
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Current Job:
I currently work for Liberty Global as their leading Digital Forensics and Incident Response specialist. I’m prt of a team which looks after LG’s own network as well as the networks of another six telecommunications firms they own in the UK and Europe.
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Employer:
Liberty Global – One of the largest data carriers you will never have heard of. They are what’s called a “Tier 1” carrier which means they can reach every other network on the internet without paying anyone else. Odd description, but an important one!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Summer loving geek
What did you want to be after you left school?
Civil Engineer
Were you ever in trouble at school?
My lawyer advises "no comment"....
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Classic car restorer
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Birdy (at the moment, it changes!)
What's your favourite food?
Curry
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1) To relive my life knowing what I know now, 2) To see Star Wars (1977) for the first time again, 3) To be financially placed to never have to work again if I chose not to.
Tell us a joke.
"Knock, knock". "Who's there?" "Annoying cow". "Annoying cow w....." "MOOOOOOOOOOO!"
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