Mike Boutwell

Giving Practical guidance to help aspiring cyber professionals start a lucrative career in cybersecurity.

➤ Serving in the capacity of a CISO to deliver key security related business strategy
➤ Presented security management reports to C-Level and auditors to address findings and close gaps. 
➤ Defined security requirements for customer systems and implemented security policies and SOPs.
➤ Developed company wide security requirements and selected third party tools aligned to needs.
➤ Led hackathons creating opportunities for software development teams to collaborate on projects. 
➤ Networked and stakeholder management to secure new business opportunities and win contracts.

Key Achievements
➤ Secured work with public and private financial service companies with 1000+ staff across UK and Europe. 
➤ Consistently achieved and maintained technology compliance rates of over 95% in diverse enterprises.
➤ Oversaw security and risk assessment for a national clearing house managing assets valued at $27 trillion.

Senior Information Security Consultant

Euroclear

➤ Overseeing critical initiatives to assure delivery is in line with risk tolerance
➤ Conducting risk assessments for critical business applications and processes
➤ Collaborating with executive stakeholders to apply risk management strategy
➤ Development and management of board level KRIs

Senior Information Security Risk Manager 

➤ Conduct risk assessments for critical financial applications and documents weaknesses for review.
➤ Design and develop security requirements based on the outcome of business impact assessments. 
➤ Work in collaboration with the CISO to build and create security requirements in line with NIST CSF.
➤ Assess third party risk in business and cloud applications and make best practice recommendations.

Key Achievements
➤ Lead for cyber risk assessments on bots and artificial intelligence
➤ Risk assessment of a critical financial application vital to capital markets processing $1Q annually.
➤ Identification of critical risks resulting in RFP to seek a new vendor to remediate open vulnerabilities.

Principal Information Security Consultant - CISO IT Risk

Takeda

➤ Digital transformation project lead in the setup of a US client’s Innovation Capability Centre in Slovakia.
➤ Defined the baseline security standards, security standard toolsets, and phased out unnecessary tools.
➤ Developed supporting SOP and policy documentation and standards and secured approval for rollout.
➤ Established endpoint protection team, a SIEM/SOAR capability, and vulnerability management program. 

Key Achievements
➤ Led global security standard for on-prem and cloud security deployments for digital transformation.
➤ Designed and implemented an executive dashboard to provide a data-driven security program.
➤ Improved executive decision making by enabling access to critical real time data and information. 
➤ Facilitated introductions for executives with Slovakian contacts helping growth from 30 to 300 staff. 
➤ Recruited and trained endpoint protection team overseeing 60,000 workstations and 120,000 servers.

Endpoint Security Team Lead

AT&T

➤	Led the security and IT strategy for the WPP Plc. account agile team, architects, and 30 engineers.
➤	Managed all client services to deliver secure architectures across EMEA, US, and APAC regions. 
➤	Worked in collaboration with the client CIO to implement technical solutions to drive cost reduction. 
➤	Technical SME conducting security analytics, control assessments, vulnerability, and risk assessments. 
➤	Mentored network team and architects to drive professional development and delivery to meet KPIs.

Key Achievements
➤	Transitioned WPP Plc. to enable a work from home setup in response to Covid from scratch.
➤	Created standardised workflows to deliver fast but consistent results for high priority projects.
➤	Appointed as Global Agile Team lead delivering a backlog of work and greatly reducing costs.

Senior Information Security Architect - Global Agile Program Lead

➤ Lead for the Citizens Financial Group account and the technology lead for the network engineers.
➤ Risk assessment and audit to identify all in scope assets and assessed existing configuration and gaps.
➤ Audited accounts to assess security posture, conducted risk assessments, and proposed improvements.
➤ Designed complex secure architectures in campus, WAN, data centres, SDN, and wireless environments.
➤ Produced documentation for RFP, RFI, and proposals, and architectural lead for projects over $100M.
➤ Developed security reference architectures aligned to business strategy and PCI-DSS requirements.

Key Achievements
➤ Achieved PCI-DSS compliance in a complex banking environment reducing enterprise IT risk by 68%.
➤ Responded to an RFP for Dow Chemicals architecting a secure solution resulting in a $100M contract. 
➤ Resolved instability issues which led to outages on 1200 ATMs and implemented enhanced logging.

Senior Network Security Architect - Lead for Citizens Financial Group

First Data Corporation

➤ Secured card and payment systems and networks in compliance with PCI-DSS on two continents.
➤ Strategic lead for disaster recovery planning, testing, and regulatory compliance for payment hubs.
➤ Compliance management including pre-testing, fault finding, resolutions, and regulator liaison. 
➤ Implementation and technical solutions for switches, routers, firewalls, VPNs, and load balancers.

Key Achievements
➤ Lead for 20 EMEA core credit card processing hubs exclusively managing London and South Africa. 
➤ Designed secure data centre and colocation architectures for multiple EMEA countries hubs.  
➤ Developed and rolled out cybersecurity policies and SOPs across EMEA to protect financial data.

Senior Network Security Engineer

T-Systems International GmbH

➤ Supervised the team and implemented security policies in a multi-vendor firewall environment.
➤ Network design SME providing input and advice on a wide range of critical business services.
➤ Deployed secure applications through engineering load balancing services for business continuity.
➤ Conducted risk assessments and made recommendations on best practice technology solutions. 

Key Achievements
➤ Project managed the deployment of the first 4G network in Europe for T-Systems International.
➤ Migration of a large-scale payment service to a greenfield ultra-low latency environment.
➤ Implemented network-based services for EverythingEverywhere’s search oriented architecture suite.

Network Security Engineer

Two words sum up my mission in information security: trust and expertise. With 15 years of security and 10 years of risk management experience under my belt, I've been fortunate enough to work with leading organizations like Cisco, AT&T, IBM, Kyndryl, First Data, and Euroclear.

My portfolio:

→ I help financial services firms secure their business and improve performance metrics with ISO 27001
→ Assessing AI risks in large complex environments and providing solutions to use AI in a risk-aware manner
→ I train teams and organizations on ISO 27001 implementation and auditing. 
→ Speaks to more than 30,000 people annually
→ Coaches and helps young professionals start and enhance their cybersecurity careers

My results:

→ Secured assets worth over $1 quadrillion
→ Delivered projects worth over $100M
→ Recently completed a major project with a world-renown vendor addressing cloud security risks
→ Consistently achieved security compliance rates of over 95% in diverse enterprises
→ Advised on the development of an innovative CNAPP security solution with a major vendor
→ Author of the Ransomware Handbook and Profit-Driven Cybersecurity

→ Contact: https://www.mikeboutwell.com/contact
→ X: @mikeboutwell4

Information System Security Officer

Odyssey Systems

• Advised customer on Risk Management Framework (RMF) assessment and authorization processes.
• Developed and oversaw operational information systems security implementation policies and guidelines of network security, based upon the Risk Management Framework (RMF). 
• Maintained knowledge of system functions, security policies, technical security safeguards, and operational security measures.
• Guided multiple Information Systems through full ATO cycles.
• Conducted periodic hardware/software inventory audits.
• Ensured approved procedures are in place for clearing, sanitizing, and destroying various types of hardware and media.
• Lead effort to review ACAS scans and provide feedback to the organization, identifying critical vulnerabilities and recommending fix-actions to improve the security posture.
• Ensured that plans of actions and milestones (POA&Ms) or remediation plans are in place for vulnerabilities identified during risk assessments, audits, inspections, etc. 
• Developed policies and procedures for responding to security incidents, to include investigating and reporting security violations and incidents. 
• Conducted Security Impact Assessments when necessary for multiple systems and requested changes.
• Ensured configuration management (CM) for security-relevant changes to software, hardware, and firmware and that they are properly documented.
• Created and reviewed Assessment and Authorization (A&A) documentation (i.e. Policies, Plans, and Procedures) were correct and kept up to date for all information systems.
• Participated in product teams, meetings, change control boards, and working groups to ensure the alignment of cybersecurity requirements in the technical baselines.
• Ensured all authorization documentation is current and accessible to properly authorized individuals.
• Conducted and/or reported annual FISMA security reviews, contingency test completion dates, and validation of cybersecurity control compliance.

Information System Security Engineer (ISSE)

General Dynamics Information Technology

•	Ensured network, system, and data confidentiality, availability and integrity through preventative maintenance, upgrades and monitoring.
•	Implemented DOD and NIST policies, technical procedures and organizational standards for preserving the integrity and security of data, reports and access.
•	Continuous Monitoring of Authorized DOD Systems.
•	Ensure security policies, procedures; recommendations comply with FISMA, NIST, Organizational guidelines and technical best practices.
•	Implement Risk Management Framework (RMF) in accordance with NIST SP 800-37.
•	Develop a variety of Assessment & Authorization deliverables including; System Security Plan (SSP), Security Assessment Report (SAR), Contingency Plan (CP) and POA&M for review and approval for Authorization Official
•	Knowledge of the Risk Management Framework (RMF) and the Assessment and Authorization (A&A) activities needed to obtain and maintain an Authority to Operate (ATO)

Information Systems Security Officer (ISSO)

Apex Systems

•	Diagnose, troubleshoot and resolve a range of software, hardware and connectivity issues. Excel in asking probing questions and researching, analyzing and rectifying problems.
•	Partnered with Tier II and Tier III help desk peers based in various locations in the US and Mexico to resolve complex problems that required escalation. Provided detailed descriptions of issues in trouble ticket system and followed up diligently to ensure swift resolutions.
•	Consistently met ambitious customer satisfaction targets.
•	Working knowledge of Active Directory for account administration.
•	Keep track of automated and self-generated service tickets to meet required SLAs.

Computer User Support Specialist

Zurich Insurance Company Ltd

• Promoted to specialized non-call team member; filing and follow-up on new non-call insurance claims for clients
• Exceptional customer service professional; trained in all four company service lines (general liability, auto, property & workmans comp)
• Expertly performs de-escalation techniques, phone etiquette, and flawlessly processes all non-call documents
• Resolves an average of 300 inquiries per week and consistently meets performance benchmarks in all areas (speed, accuracy and volume)
• Informs management of operational issues impeding performance or customer satisfaction including but not limited to those impacting the customer, client, or the company
• Utilizes HTML, CSS and Microsoft SharePoint to maintain and update 500 documents within the companys operating protocol manual for associates to reference
• Updates and maintains critical organizational productivity databases that are utilized to record organizational quality metrics
• Designed front end and back end queries for productivity database
• Assisted with security compliance and hardening the system in accordance with industry stated standards and regulations

Customer Service Representative

The Japanese have a term, 生き甲斐 (Ikigai), that means your “reason for being” or reason to live. This would be the real reason you want to wake up for in the morning. It is ultimately meant to be a balance between what you love doing, what you are good at, what you are passionate about, and what the world needs from you. This is your true life purpose.

I didn’t know it then, but I found my Ikigai at a very early age. My goal is, and always has been, to help as many people as I can, and I have found a way to do that through technology. My Dad would often play computer games with my sister and me when I was roughly 4 years old. I immediately fell in love with both gaming and being on the computer all the time. As my familiarity with computers grew, my natural curiosity for technology began to flourish. I started asking questions and researching about what other things technology was capable of by tinkering with programs, trying to learn how they interact with each other, and then see what I can learn from there. There was always another rabbit hole to explore, and I have never grown tired of it. 

Cybersecurity is an exciting field because it is always changing and evolving. With this career path, I can keep diving into those rabbit holes and discovering what the best path forward will be. My love of technology and my desire to help people, my Ikigai, is fully realized in the cybersecurity world. 

What is your Ikigai?

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Mike Boutwell

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