Speaking & Contributions

Public Talks & Industry Contributions.

Beyond my operational roles, I believe in contributing back to the profession. Whether it's through keynotes on TIDIR architecture or building local cybersecurity communities in Scotland, my goal is to share battle-tested insights that help us all defend better.

Cyber Scotland Connect

As Co-Founder, I lead initiatives to connect and elevate the cybersecurity community across Scotland.

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Speaking Engagements

Seeking a perspective on intelligence-driven defense or security leadership for your next event?

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2025

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: Leith (Edinburgh) Meetup!

Presented on Emerging Technology: Threat Detection, Investigation & Response Platform Architecture

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: Dundee Meetup!

Wrote Cyber Scotland Connect Post: Centralised Resources and Community Support

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect / Extrahop

Presented on Digital Skills - Whiteinch Primary School

2024

Presented at Salute My Job

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect at Trustpilot

Presented on ADP: F1 & F2 - Intrusion Detection and Analysis & Incident Management

Presented at Le Tour Du Hack

Presented on Digital Skills - St Blane's Primary School

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect at Trustpilot (OT/ICS, Diversity, AppSec, Third Sector)

Presented on Digital Skills - St Charles' Primary School

Interviewed for AS Expert Insights

Interviewed for Stax on MDR Services

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: Inaugural Dundee Meetup!

2023

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: November Meetup!

Hosted November meetup for the Cyber Scotland Connect community, focusing on local networking and industry knowledge sharing.

Presented on CIISec ADP12: F1, F2 Intrusion Detection and Analysis & Incident

Presentation on SecOps for CIISec.

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: September Meetup!

Facilitated the September CSC meetup, continuing our mission to bridge the gap between different sectors of the Scottish tech industry.

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: August Meetup!

Hosted August meetup for the Cyber Scotland Connect

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect: Summer Meetup!

Hosted the annual CSC Summer Meetup, featuring lightning talks and collaborative workshops for the local community.

Wrote: Cyber Scotland Connect Receives Sponsorship from Community Supporters

Presented at West Lothian College

Presenting at West Lothian College

Presented at 6th Intl. Conference on Big Data, Cybersecurity

Spoke at Big Data Conference - Panel

Presented at BA Life 2023

Presenting at BA Life 2023

Presented at Cyber Security Community of Practice

An event for Scotland's Careers Advisers.

2022

Hosted Cyber Scotland Connect Event

Hosted CSC event.

Presented at DIGIT Expo 2022

Presented on Cybersecurity Operations: Starting from Scratch, Bulking Out, Reporting to the Boss

Presented at CIISec ADP

Presenting on Intrusion Detection and Analysis & Incident Management

Presented at BeerCon4

Presented on Being Blue: An Overview of Security Operations

Presented at ScotSoft 2022

Presented on: Security Operations 101: Working in/with SecOps! at ScotSoft 2022

CAP15: Intrusion Detection & Analysis

Prepared and delivered a 1-hour presentation on intrusion detection and analysis for CIISec.

ICSF Exam Presentation

Prepared and delivered a 1-hour presentation on SOC 101 for CIISec.

Spoke at Cyber Insight Panel at Napier University

Careers event focused on giving students an overview of cyber careers.

2021

Presented on CIISec Apprentice Programme: Secure Operations Management

Presented to the CIISec apprentices about Secure Operations Management.

Co-hosted: Lessons from Working in Cyber During the Pandemic

Co-hosted an event where a round table of attendees shared with an audience their personal experiences of working within the cyber profession during the pandemic.

CompTIA Guest Speaker

Presenting at a CompTIA event targeting those just starting their careers into cyber. Giving them an overview of myself, my career and how to get into Security Operations.

Hosted ScotSecure 2021: CSC Workshop on Modernising Security Operations

Prepared, presented and hosted a 1-hour presentation and workshop on Modernising Security Operations.

Presented at Napier University (My Journey in Cyber)

I prepared and presented a 1-hour presentation on my journey into cybersecurity, common skills and behaviours which are needed within the profession.

Co-hosted: Cyber War Stories: Challenges & Triumph (CSC Virtual Event)

A round table discussion about the experiences of responding to being under attack, tough challenges and valuable lessons learned.

Hosted Edinburgh Virtual User Group - Risk-Based Alerting

Demonstration of Risk-Based Alerting in Phantom, and a round table on implementing large-scale Splunk Infrastructure.

2020

Presented to students on the CSN09112 Networked Services module.

Interview hosted by Bill Buchanan OBE covering career history and soft skills.

Presented at Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Splunk .conf19 Overview & Boss of the SOC (Adarma HQ)

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

2019

Presented at Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Platform Management at Scale: Configuration Management for Automation & Recovery

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Presented at Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Storage Special: SmartStore Overview, Practical Lab & On-prem Options

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Security-focused: Phantom, Endpoint Data Model & Security Essentials App

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: SPLing Bee Battle Royale! (Interactive SPL competition)

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Collecting AWS Logs at Scale & SmartStore Intro

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

2018

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Metrics/mstats, KV Store + Javascript, and .conf 2018 News

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Special Event: Splunk Discovery Roadshow & User Group Meetup

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Custom Commands, KV Store & DevOps for Splunk Deployment

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Splunk & Phantom for Automation/Orchestration & Docker for Labs

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: TSTATS usage, Life of a Splunk Trainer & DevOps in Development

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: The Missing Layers: Syslog Collection & HTTP Event Collection

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

2017

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Updates to Enterprise, ES, and ITSI from .conf

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Securing the Enterprise/Cloud with Splunk at the Centre

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Splunk at Scale, Splunking at Home & Intro to Enterprise Security

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Building Splunk Apps, Development Paths & User Behaviour Analytics

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Dashboarding Workshop & Universal vs. Heavy Forwarders

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

2016

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Operational Insight with ITSI & Use Case Development

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Hosted Splunk Edinburgh User Group: Security & Best Practices

Splunk Edinburgh User Group

Historical Archive

Presented Security Operations, MITRE ATT&CK, SOC Roles / Competencies

SOC Strategy

Presented Modern Security Operations & Common Roles/Competencies

Security Careers

Presented Becoming a Defender (Blue Teams FTW!)

Blue Teaming

Presented Virtual Splunk User Group - Phantom Workbook Automation

Automation / SOAR

Presented SOC Fundamental Roles & Skills

Education / Training

Presented Hunting Hard & Failing Fast (ScotSoft 2019)

Threat Hunting

Presented Splunk Phantom, Endpoint Data Model & Security Essentials

Tooling

Presented Collecting AWS Logs & Introducing Splunk SmartStore

Cloud Infrastructure

Presented Metrics for Fun, KV Store + JS & News from .conf 2018

Development

Presented Splunk .conf18 Updates, Config Add-on, SplDevOps

Release Analysis

Presented "SplDevOps: Making Splunk Development a Breeze"

DevOps Integration

Presented "Lessons on Human Vulnerability within InfoSec/Cyber"

Social Engineering

Presented Big Data For Threat Detection & Response

Analytics

Presented OWASP - Analyst, Engineer or Consultant?

AppSec Careers

Presented TSTAS: Life of a Splunk Trainer & DevOps in Splunk

Professional Development

Presented Splunk Dashboarding & Universal Vs. Heavy Forwarders

Data Architecture

Presented Supporting Splunk at Scale & Splunking at Home

Architecture

Presented Introduction to Enterprise Security (ES) Framework

SIEM Strategy

Presented Machine Data 101: Beyond the Basics (Adarma/Splunk)

Foundational Skills

Presented Building a Next-Generation Security Operations Center

SOC Engineering

Presented Splunk Technical Overview for Analysts

Training

Presented Incident Response & Orchestration with Splunk

IR Lifecycle

Presented Legacy SIEM to Splunk: How to Conquer Migration

Strategic Migration

Presented Using Splunk for Threat Intelligence & ATT&CK Mapping

Intel Operations

Presented Cyber Scotland Connect: Community Building in InfoSec

Community

Presented Effective Security Monitoring for Small Teams

Resource Management

Presented Splunk SmartStore: Technical Deep Dive

Performance Tuning

Presented Advanced Log Analysis & Search Optimization

Technical Deep Dive