Cyber Security Colony Gets New Chief Apiarist

SYDNEY, 05 FEB 16.  Nick Ellsmore has been appointed as CEO of the cyber security firm Hivint, marking another milestone in the company's rapid growth. He will hold the CEO position jointly with Craig Searle, although they both prefer the title of "Chief Apiarist" rather than CEO.

The new appointment means the rapidly developing responsibilities of the company are now split between two of Australia’s leading cyber security professionals: Nick Ellsmore in Sydney and Craig Searle in Melbourne.

Hivint is a business with two distinct offerings. The professional services arm is a more traditional cyber security consultancy service, while Security Colony (www.securitycolony.com) is a portal that enables cyber security collaboration and information sharing. It is the first and largest platform of its kind in Australia. Nick's focus on building Security Colony is a key part of Hivint's long-term plans.

Explaining how Security Colony works, Nick said, "If a problem is discovered and solved in one organisation, it makes sense to make that answer readily available to other organisations so they can take immediate steps to protect their businesses from the same threat."

He went on to liken the concept to a beehive. Beehives are successful because the collective knowledge of the hive - or colony - is substantially greater than any single bee. This is where the title "Chief Apiarist" comes in - Nick and Craig are the chief beekeepers.

Nick added, "The biggest cyber security issue that most businesses face today is the rapidly increasing amount of time and money they have to spend dealing with threats, just to stand still. We are seeing organisations doubling the size of their security teams, and the size of their budget, for what amounts to a marginal gain - at best.

"Hivint's Security Colony provides a starting point for slowing this growth in cyber security expenditure. An annual subscription to the portal costs about the same as a single day of consulting. It provides the output from dozens of Hivint consulting projects every month, adding up to millions of dollars a year in value. In an industry renowned for escalating prices, it's the best value cyber security service out there."

Throughout his career Nick has co-founded and developed other companies in the cyber security industry, including SIFT and Stratsec; Stratsec was ultimately sold to BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. He has been a consultant in the industry for over 16 years, and has advised cyber security firms going through mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to becoming Hivint’s Chief Apiarist/CEO he was an advisor to the company, helping it secure growth in its first year.

Craig Searle, Hivint’s other Chief Apiarist/CEO, welcomed the appointment. He said, "Having worked with Nick for well over a decade building SIFT and Stratsec, he was an obvious choice as an early advisor to Hivint. It's fantastic that Nick has now joined us full time to provide hands-on experience to our expansion plans. With his extensive relationships throughout the industry and unparalleled understanding of cyber security strategy, he's well placed to help take our disruptive cyber security collaboration model to the market."

Hivint was founded in February 2015, and in its first 12 months it has grown to a team of 13 specialist cyber security consultants. In addition to Sydney and Melbourne, it has operations in Perth and Brisbane, and revenue for the company grew by 30 percent quarter on quarter over the last year. The company was named by Foxtel's head of security, Kevin Shaw, as a cyber security start-up to watch, and it has a rapidly growing subscription base for the Security Colony portal as well as an expanding list of consultancy clients.

"I see in Hivint the opportunity to truly redefine the way organisations consume cyber security consulting services," said Nick, "and to make cyber security collaboration a reality. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”