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Achievements and challenges
Richard’s proudest achievements are those that have had the biggest impact on protecting potential victims of cyber crime
“My career highlight to date is training hundreds of police officers around the UK as part of a dedicated program to educate police forces on the changing face of online fraud. Awareness of these issues varies considerably between officers. So to be able to demonstrate how social engineering can and does devastate lives made me feel I was really making a contribution to tackling a serious problem.
I founded The AntiSocial Engineer because I wanted to make a difference. So working with the Police and helping them better protect people was really satisfying. It’s reassuring to know that there are now officers on the ground who are educated and knowledgeable in supporting victims of social engineering. And the level of passion in the officers I trained was great to see.”
Operating at the sharp end
Many of Richard’s achievements are confidential, like the details of the large-scale SIM swap fraud he helped to prevent, and for which he received a medal of commendation from the Metropolitan Police.
Richard’s other stand-out achievements
- Identifying and exposing one of the UK’s largest and most notorious data breaches of the 2010s shortly before news of the breach hit the headlines.
- Successfully bypassing physical security in a large office and planting a bug in the company’s boardroom to emphasise the risks of face-to-face social engineering.
- Highlighting a security vulnerability at one of the UK’s largest retailers which left its customers open to SMShing (SMS-based phishing) fraud, and which was promptly fixed.