Samantha S.
United Kingdom · Product, Go-to-Market & Marketing Leadership · CYBERR
179 followers
About
Resolutionary, Disaster Junkie, Product Builder, Keynote Speaker, and Customer Enthusiast. TechWomen100, CSO30, and SC Magazine Top 30 Female Cybersecurity Leaders.
Jill of many trades, mistress of a few.
I've over 25 years of experience in cyber security, and during this time have held a plethora of titles, one of my favourite titles being Global Threat Response Manager, which definitely sounds more glamorous than it was in reality.
I've defined strategy for multiple security products and technologies, helped hundreds of organisations of all shapes, sizes, and geographies recover and learn from cyberattacks, and trained anyone who’ll listen on security concepts and solutions.
My life in IT started much earlier, at age 6, when I had twice as many computers than my school (a ZX Spectrum 48K and a BBC Master), and was conned into QAing educational games on 5¼ inch floppy disks by my mother’s employer.
I author articles for various security publications, and am a regular speaker at industry events, including multiple BSides’, Black Hat MEA, Beercon, ISMG, DTX, Infosecurity Europe, and Risk. I am a big supporter and advocate of the security community, and volunteer at a number of events around the world, help organise BSides Newcastle, BSides Leeds, and BSides Lancashire. You’ll find me wearing a red shirt with the third shift SOC goons at Def Con 🏴☠️
I most enjoy solving problems and making customers happy. It's wonderful to be able to do what you love.
Specialties
- AI / ML Security
- Governance & Compliance
- Incident Response
- Security Strategy
- Security Team Management
Skills
- Product Marketing
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Brand Positioning
- Messaging
- Integrated Campaigns
- Demand Generation
- Sales Enablement
- Analyst Relations
- Field Marketing
- Executive Communications
17 skills in total
Licenses & Certifications
-
Practical Product Management
Pragmatic Institute
Issued Feb 2013
-
Pragmatic Marketing Framework
Pragmatic Marketing
Issued Feb 2013
-
DEF CON 33 Goon
DEF CON
Issued Oct 2025
4 certifications in total
Experience
-
Chief Marketing Officer
May 2026 — Present
United Kingdom
-
Chief Marketing Officer / Director
Jun 2026 — Present
Glasgow
-
Board Advisor and Senior Council Member
The Hacking Games
Oct 2023 — Present
United Kingdom
9 experiences in total
Recent posts
Sometimes, the most valuable thing you can have when starting a cybersecurity career is someone willing to share what they’ve learned.
That’s one of the ideas behind our new partnership with Canada’s Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). 🇨🇦
Our Chief Partnership Officer, [profile:3daec35e-7666-4b97-9120-05a009816f8d:Kätlin Koemets], met with ICTC’s Anne Patterson in Paris to talk about how we’re connecting emerging cybersecurity professionals with a wider international community.
By bringing together people with different backgrounds, experiences and expertise, we want to make it easier for those starting their careers to find guidance, build relationships and discover new opportunities.
🎬 Watch Kätlin and Anne talk about the partnership and what we hope to achieve together.
You can also read Kätlin’s blog, linked in the comments.
#Cybersecurity #CybersecurityCommunity
When trying to impersonate someone to contact me about a cybersecurity CMO role, spelling their name correctly would be a stronger start.
An email arrived last night. Apparently my cybersecurity marketing and GTM experience had “genuinely stood out”.
Except…
The sender was using a Gmail address.
The company name in that email address didn’t quite match the name of the company (the word “labor” 🇺🇸 had magically grown an additional vowel 🇬🇧, and another word had depluralised itself in the process. One letter in, one letter out, I guess🧐)
The person supposedly approaching me was its Chief Information Officer.
The company specialises in blue-collar staffing.
An unusual combination for a cybersecurity executive search, you might say…
Then, over the course of four sentences, the sender also managed to forget how to spell their own surname. I mean, it happens to the best of us, right? 🤣
There is a real person with that name and title at that company. I’ve reached out independently on LinkedIn to flag the apparent impersonation.
A quick search might have reassured me that the person existed. It wouldn’t have established that they sent the email.
Unfortunately for whoever wrote this, I can read (both British and US English!), and have enough experience to know what a CIO generally doesn’t do.
The job market is exhausting enough without this malarkey. 🤷♀️
Alfred Intelligence has reviewed the “opportunity” and would also like to express his reservations. 👀
#RecruitmentScams #JobScams #Cybersecurity #AlfredIntelligence
📢 Shared from [group:7e7a681e-a9d7-4358-9b4f-03abb66b3b7f:Cyberr UK]
As interesting UK government consultation is open right now from the Law Commission, exploring whether software (including AI) should be covered under product liability: https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/product-liability/
I would definitely encourage security professionals to have their say on this. There's a really good window for responding to this one - it closes on Thursday 14 January 2027.
As a reminder, you do not need to respond on behalf of a company and you do not need to answer every question. Focus on the ones that are most relevant to your interests and experience. As usual, they have provided an email address for additional commentary or evidence, but bear in mind that they rely heavily on the data in the specific survey responses, so where possible, answer those questions first.
Usual tips apply:
- Be polite!
- Stay on topic
- Avoid jargon and where you can't, explain what you mean as simply as possible or provide examples to highlight your meaning
- Where possible, try to offer solutions, not just point out problems (though that is valuable too)
UK members, you’ll very likely want to stop scrolling - this is a fantastic opportunity to help shape cybersecurity policy.
Hackers in the House is back for 2026! I took part in 2024 and it was an amazing experience, so I’d really encourage UK cybersecurity folk to consider getting involved.
It’s a free, one-day event organised by security community volunteers, bringing cybersecurity professionals together to discuss and influence current and upcoming cyber policy. A chance to learn, contribute your operational experience and get to know the people involved in shaping it.
This year’s event is on Friday 11 December in Whitehall, London, with briefings, discussion and networking starting late morning.
If you’re a UK-based cybersecurity professional with 3+ years of operational experience, you can register your interest until 23 October.
They’re prioritising places for people who haven’t participated before, so more of the community gets the opportunity. Previous attendees can still register their interest too.
Register your interest here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSUT4gSVk-tEszunjc8dxLG69gVWur_ooNgLvjZh_fC10SzQ/viewform
Huge thanks to my lovely friend Jen Ellis MBE and the volunteer team for bringing it back for another year!
ASOS has confirmed a data breach after customers received an unauthorised notification through its own app claiming attackers had compromised company data.
The incident involves third-party platforms ASOS uses to communicate with customers. The retailer says names and contact details may have been accessed, but it does not currently believe payment card information or account passwords were affected.
The attackers have claimed they compromised an ASOS Snowflake instance, although Snowflake says it has found no evidence so far that its platform itself was compromised.
There’s an important lesson here beyond the breach itself.
**Customer communication systems are part of the attack surface.**
If an attacker can gain access to a trusted channel such as an app notification, email platform or customer messaging service, they don’t just potentially gain access to data. They gain access to the organisation’s voice.
That creates some very convincing possibilities for phishing, fraud and social engineering.
For security teams, it’s another reason to look closely at who and what has access to customer communication platforms, how those permissions are managed, and how quickly access can be revoked when something goes wrong.
Read more:https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/07/asos-data-breach-app-notification/
#Cybersecurity #DataBreach #ThirdPartyRisk #CloudSecurity