Speakers
Chairman and Founder The Security Company (International) Limited
The Security Awareness Special Interest Group
With nearly 40 years’ experience in the security and crime prevention industries, Martin Smith is a well-known, colourful and highly respected personality in the information assurance and cyber security world. He is an established and successful businessman and philanthropist, communicator, visionary, and internationally recognised author, speaker and (latterly) blogger on his passion of improving online trust. He has an extensive and enviable network of security contacts around the world.
Martin gained his degree in behavioural psychology before spending 15 years as a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force Security (Provost) Branch employed on the whole range of policing and security duties. After being awarded the MBE for this work, he left the Service to establish a second career in the commercial sector. He joined Touche Ross Management Consultants before becoming the Senior Director of Corporate Security for Kroll Associates (UK). He then joined the Standard Chartered Bank as Head of Information Security before (in 1997) forming The Security Company (International) Limited.
Martin is a Fellow of The Security Institute, and a Freeman of both the City of London and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. He is an active member of ASIS International Europe, the Information Assurance Advisory Council, and EURIM – The Information Society Alliance.
The Security Company (International) Limited is a leading provider of creative employee cyber security education programmes. Martin and his specialist team help major corporations to implement effective cyber security and cybercrime prevention awareness campaigns and culture change programmes. Using their proprietary i-wareness™ (a vivid spectrum of strategic thinking, measurement tools, creative communications and online education tools aligned with each client’s business objectives) organisational risks are minimised and businesses strengthened. Through this work Martin is known to and has dealt with those at the highest levels of cyber security and cybercrime prevention in organisations around the world, from both the public and private sectors.
In 2004 Martin established the Security Awareness Special Interest Group (SASIG), a subscription free networking forum which he has always run pro bono. Its membership is drawn almost exclusively from the CIO, CSO, CISO, SIRO and DSO community, and now represents hundreds of organisations of all sizes from across the world and from all sectors, public and private. It is a leading and credible voice in the information assurance and cyber security debate, and a real force for improving trust online. Its events attract delegates and speakers of the highest calibre, a virtual “Who’s Who” of the cyber security and online fraud prevention worlds. Professional and industry organisations, charities and academia are invited to promote themselves with a view to encouraging professional development. Experts in the field of marketing, communication, behavioural psychology and education participate and share best practice. Evolving legal opinion is often debated by specialist lawyers. SASIG also engages with and contributes to the political debate.
SASIG meetings range from high-profile all-day events with up to 150 delegates to intimate workshops focussing on specific topics or vertical markets. These activities are supported by a monthly on-line newsletter and the SASIG website, so that members from around the world are able to join in the activity and learn from the debates. The Chatham House Rule is strictly enforced and universally respected at all meetings, and vendors and the Press are excluded – thus the level of debate is extraordinarily revealing and rewarding. Martin has been determined that SASIG should retain its independence and remain available to all organisations regardless of their size and budget, and he has safeguarded the integrity of, and trust delegates and speakers place in, the SASIG cause. Via its members, SASIG now reaches millions of people worldwide – of varying cultures, languages, and technical sophistication – promoting best practice advice on cyber security and cybercrime prevention.
For more than 20 years Martin has been an accomplished and popular professional after-dinner and motivational speaker. He tells of the many of the characters with whom he has served and worked, and from whom he learned vital lessons about getting the best from any team under the most difficult and demanding of circumstances.
Martin Smith has had a fascinating and varied career in the world of espionage. His unique knowledge of counter-terrorism, counter-fraud and computer security is in enormous demand from commercial corporations around the world. Key themes include Security & Risk, Effective Crisis Management, Information Security, E-commerce risks and opportunities, Leadership and Motivation.
