Hilton Ashford

• Spearheaded the creation of the Security Operations (SecOps) business unit for BUI, formalising the company's cybersecurity offerings across three major focus areas namely; Red Team, Blue Team and Purple Team operations.
• Deployed the first Microsoft Sentinel-centric Security Operations Center (SOC) in South Africa, recognised by Microsoft, which now delivers services to several multinational and international customers across numerous business sectors.
• Developed and maintained robust incident response protocols to swiftly mitigate damage and minimise liability during security breaches.
• Authored comprehensive security incident reporting processes and templates, effectively documenting breaches, vulnerabilities, and actionable remedial measures.
• Crafted clear and concise communications on cybersecurity best practices, educating both customers and staff on known threats and potential attack vectors.
• Conducted thorough IT audits and security assessments on customer systems, identifying vulnerabilities and risks, and recommending effective solutions for mitigation.
• Assessed emerging security issues, evaluating threats, risks, and exposure; and provided expert guidance to relevant stakeholders on appropriate security measures.
• Cultivated a high-performing team of over 57 people by interviewing, hiring, training, and mentoring staff members. Provided coaching, led performance reviews, and offered constructive feedback to foster professional growth.

• Guided organizational technology strategy and roadmaps.
• Oversaw IT department operations and training requirements.
• Built and adjusted project plans to account for dynamic targets, staffing changes and operational specifications.
• Quickly learned new skills and applied them to daily tasks, improving efficiency and productivity.
• Automated tasks to reduce labour costs and increase productivity.
• Implemented firewalls, two-factor authentication and antivirus software for networks supporting 250+ users.
• Built, customized and repaired technology based on staff requests.
• Performed root cause analysis to provide resolutions for production issues.
• Deployed hypervisor and failover clustering technologies to reduce expenditure and improve utilisation of CapEx-based infrastructure

• Manage the seizure / acquisition of evidence, imaging, indexing, analysis and investigation of cases, all while maintaining the proper legal requirements (Chain of Custody, etc.)
• Sifted and sorted through evidence and recorded findings.
• In several instances worked with a team of Investigators in a combined effort to resolve complex and sensitive cases.
• Implemented a turn-key forensic laboratory solution for one of South Africa’s leading financial institutes.
• Charged with maintaining, expanding and evolving the IT infrastructure as the business grew.
• Daily support of the network, servers (virtual and physical), and Linux desktop users.
• This included installation, troubleshooting and management of file servers, email, firewalls, monitoring and reporting, anti-virus and backup systems.
• Implement and oversee identity management (Novell IDM), access control (Novell NAM), and VPN systems
• Managed several projects for new web-based products that were developed for clients, inter alia TravelSafe and ReVu.

Additional details can be made available for past work history; which include:

• 2007-2008 Dimension Data
• 2005-2006 First Consulting Alliance
• 2000-2005 Grinaker-LTA

Roles held in the abovementioned include:

Active Directory Migration Consultant

Senior IT Consultant

Jnr IT Manager in West Africa

Network Engineer

IT Support Specialist