7 Stages of Security Man - Part 2 - Sentience

Having been in London for my first dismal job sufferance, I returned home to Winchester when my father became terminally ill in 2000. I was job-less and feckless (I didn't have a job and didn't give a feck) having lost all faith in human kindness at the bank, and didn't really want to do anything having had the news of my father's ill health.

My aunt was a careers officer for the local University at the time, and regularly sent me ideas of what I could try. I think she thought rather more of my abilities than I, or indeed any of my tutors had. One day however, I put my name down on the University jobs board, and received a handful of replies.

One such reply was from a guy who was setting up his own reselling business, and needed a technical person to help out. It turned out I had been at school with his wife and brother-in-law, and that was all the reference I needed. In the main we sold RSA SecurID and nCipher cards. We also dabbled in RSA Keon (urgh), Cleartrust (argh!) and various other minor annoyances. I quickly set up the network, saw in and out in rapid succession of around 10 sales people, learnt SecurID inside out, and got to grips with nCipher. At the same time my father became increasingly more ill and finally passed away in December of 2001.

Around this time however, we landed a large deal with nCipher, to install 20 cards at a large broadcaster in the UK. A company named Ingrian Networks (more of them later...) were using their cards in their new whizz-bang SSL device. They needed a strong reseller in the UK to help them conquer the market, and chose our little 4 man shop as it was at the time. I worked with the American SE very closely for some time, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. However, Ingrian did not see the sales they were expecting from us.

The relationship did not continue, but I was already out of the door by that time and on to pastures new. With my new found confidence in the network and now hooked on security devices, I joined an MSP, controlling financial websites across the world. Time to get my own back on the bankers...