About

I’m from County Tipperary in Ireland and studied computer science in Galway. I began a PhD in network analysis before leaving to work in California.

I’ve spent most of my career in security, working at companies including Dropbox, Patreon, Truework and Vannevar Labs. The work has ranged from security engineering, incident response and infrastructure to policy, risk, building teams and running security programs.

My work has spanned hands-on engineering, technical leadership, and responsibility for building and running security programs. I like understanding how systems actually work, but I’ve also spent a lot of time deciding what matters, working with engineering and leadership teams, and figuring out how security should fit into a growing company.

I’ve also built things of my own. I built EndEngine around end-to-end encrypted systems, and more recently I’ve been working on AuthDuty, focused on authentication and identity.

These days I’m based back in Ireland. I still tend to get drawn towards problems involving identity, infrastructure, distributed systems and cryptography, along with the awkward places where technical systems, people and policy meet.

This site is where I write about some of that, and whatever else I find interesting.