CDSA

Kroll Names Peters Associate Managing Director, Cyber Security, Investigations Practice, London (CDSA)

Kroll, a global leader in risk mitigation, investigations, compliance, cyber resilience, security, and incident response solutions, today announced the appointment of Ioan Peters as an Associate Managing Director in its Cyber Security and Investigations practice, based in London. Peters has a 20-year track record of successfully designing and deploying information technology solutions that better enable business operations and manage risks in organizations as diverse as law enforcement, the UK Government, and blue-chip companies. His experience includes serving as a representative of the UK Government, for which he has worked bilaterally and multilaterally as a senior manager and consultant on matters relating to intellectual property protection, both in the country and abroad.

“Time and again, Ioan has demonstrated a terrific combination of information technology expertise, strong business acumen, and a global perspective in helping organizations address their most challenging cyber issues,” said Andrew Beckett, Managing Director and EMEA Cyber Security Practice Leader. “I am confident that our clients will benefit greatly from his holistic approach to cyber security that focuses on the prevention or rapid detection of problems as much as it does on resolving current situations.”

“I am very pleased to welcome Ioan to our growing team of extraordinary cyber professionals,” said Jason Smolanoff, Senior Managing Director and Global Cyber Security Practice Leader for Kroll. “Cyber criminals can strike organizations from anywhere in the world, quickly wreaking havoc in today’s hyper-connected economy. The global expansion of our Cyber team reflects Kroll’s commitment to helping clients not only address cyber attacks of all sizes and sources, but also to understand their cyber security vulnerabilities from multiple vantage points so they can ultimately better protect their people and property.”

Peters joins Kroll from Airbus Group, where as Head of Security Audit, Corporate Security, he was responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of security controls across the Group, including critical human factors, in defending people, assets, and intellectual property from diverse external threats. In addition to implementing conventional audit measures, Peters devised and deployed advanced techniques including cyber-attack simulations; this methodology, which included the use of psychological strategies such as gamification, is currently being investigated as best practice by the UK Government.

Peters had transitioned to Airbus Group after serving for three years as Head of the Security Consulting Practice with Regency IT Consulting, an Airbus subsidiary. During his tenure, Peters completed engagements that improved information security within corporate, payment card (PCI DSS), and operational (ICS/SCADA) systems for many blue-chip clients operating at the highest threat levels, including Airbus Group, the European Patent Office, and major utility companies. His extensive expertise in IT architecture often enabled clients to build security into transformative business programs at the earliest stages. In this role, Peters also carried the formal title of Security Controller, and was responsible for all aspects of Regency’s information security through human, physical, and technical domains.

From 2008-2012, Peters served as Departmental Security Officer (DSO) for the UK Intellectual Property Office. Peters established the entire security regime that protects the UK’s largest collection of sensitive intellectual property. With responsibility for technical, physical, and human security, he rapidly instituted a new set of policies in all of these areas and at all levels of the organization to achieve a more robust security culture. His efforts led the organization from noncompliance with government security standards to almost maximum compliance within two years and achieved certification against ISO 27001. It was during this time that Peters successfully managed the response to the first denial of service attack against the UK Government in 2011 using a team assembled from the Police Central E-Crimes Unit, intelligence agencies, and the security services. Alongside his role as DSO, Peters was also responsible for the technology underpinning the process by which patents are examined and granted in the UK. In this capacity, he regularly represented the UK within the European Union and United Nations, and at other international intergovernmental meetings.

Prior to serving in the UK IPO, Peters was with the South Wales Police, the UK’s fifth largest police force, where from 2002-2008 he specialized in technical architecture and security controls. His projects included building a secure email and web access system for the force from the ground up and implementing a number of other systems which control access to intelligence systems; all of these systems are still in use today. Earlier in his career, at s8080 Digital Media and Sema Group, Peters designed, delivered, and maintained secure, high-performance web-based software solutions for large organizations in both the blue-chip and public sectors.

In addition to being a Prince II Practitioner and a full member of the Institute of Information Security Professionals, Peters holds a number of technical certifications. He is an acknowledged expert in his field, whose work has been reported by the Wall Street Journal to be a positive example of risk management in government. He often speaks to professional groups on topics related to information risk governance.