Scorpius.
Security & Intelligence Solutions
Independent security and risk management that takes in the whole system - the physical, the human, the informational and the reputational. Fifteen years of doing the work, not describing it.
Every constellation is scattered stars until someone connects them.
So is every threat.
The person behind the practice
I have spent roughly fifteen years in protective security, counterintelligence and investigations - twelve of them in uniform, and the rest putting what that taught me to work in the civilian world. The thread running through all of it is a simple one: understand the threat honestly, then build the smallest set of measures that actually holds.
Twelve years in the Regular Army from 2011 took me across the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Asia-Pacific. A later deployment to Europe put me in charge of physical security across three countries during active conflict - threat assessment, protective measures, incident investigation, and plain-spoken advice to commanders up to three-star level. I now serve as a Staff Sergeant in the Intelligence Corps Reserve.
Since leaving regular service I have led intelligence investigations into hostile actors and information operations for government and private clients. I work best where security has to earn its keep against everything else an organisation is trying to do, and where an honest account of the risk is wanted rather than a reassuring one.
Physical security and intelligence - and everything they touch
My foundation is physical security and intelligence: the hard business of protecting places and reading threats before they move. But an attacker doesn't respect those lines - so the risk management can't stop there either.
People break before walls do. A team carrying stress, fatigue or unprocessed trauma is a security concern as much as a welfare one, and looking after them is part of the job rather than an afterthought to it.
Reputation is its own attack surface. It can be lost to a false-information campaign that never touches your buildings, or to a breach handled badly once one has - and the damage tends to outlast the incident by a long way.
And risk travels. It follows people onto aircraft, into hotels and across borders, which is where operational experience earns its keep. I look at the physical, the human, the informational and the reputational together, because they were never really separate.
What I can do for you
Engaged as a contractor, consultant or interim. Whether you need a single assessment, a programme stood up, or a steady hand for a season, the work is scoped to the problem in front of you - and priced against it.
Protective & physical security
Site and estate vulnerability assessment, protective measures aligned to NPSA guidance, and security designed to be proportionate to the threat rather than the budget line. Recommendations you can act on, aligned to ISO 31000 and informed by risk assessment.
- Physical security appraisals
- Estate & single-site reviews
- Measure design & assurance
Threat & risk assessment
Clear-eyed assessment across the full spectrum - terrorism, espionage, sabotage, subversion, organised crime and cyber - including hostile actor and grey-zone activity. Written up so a board can read it and a guard force can use it.
- TESSOC threat picture
- Hostile actor analysis
- Briefings & horizon work
Travel risk management
Keeping people safe on the move - journey and destination risk assessment, pre-travel briefings, and a plan for when something goes wrong far from home. Built on operational experience in demanding places, not a desktop template.
- Journey & destination risk
- Pre-travel briefings
- Crisis & incident support
Reputation & information risk
The cost of a security failure is rarely just operational. A false-information campaign, or a breach handled poorly, can take an organisation's reputation with it long after the incident closes. I help anticipate that exposure and plan for it before it lands.
- Disinformation & false narratives
- Reputational exposure
- Incident planning
Investigations & counterintelligence
Incident and insider risk investigation, open-source enquiry, and counterintelligence work carried out with discretion and a clean evidential trail. Findings that stand up to scrutiny and lead somewhere useful.
- Incident investigation
- Insider risk
- OSINT enquiry
Security culture & welfare
Making security something an organisation owns rather than tolerates - and looking after the people who carry it. Security Champions who take the principles back to their teams, and a culture that treats welfare, fatigue and the effects of trauma as seriously as it treats locks and passwords.
- Culture & Security Champions
- Team welfare
- Trauma-aware practice
Training & instruction
Beyond advising, I teach. I design and deliver intelligence analysis and security training across a broad syllabus - from the intelligence cycle and analytical tradecraft to protective security, threat awareness and the TESSOC picture. Every session draws on a deep library of lessons, exercises and materials, built up over years and shaped to the room in front of me - a single team, a cohort, or a whole organisation. Delivered remotely or in person.
- Intelligence analysis & the intelligence cycle
- Analytical tradecraft & assessment writing
- Protective & physical security
- Threat awareness & TESSOC
- Bespoke lessons & full course materials
Writing
Away from the day job I write - mostly assessments of security, readiness and the shape of the world, and now and then something more personal. The instinct is the same either way: pay attention, name the thing honestly, and don't flinch from the uncomfortable answer.
NATO's Omnicrisis and the Home Base
Five crises at once, and the question underneath them all: if it came to it, could the home base actually respond? A soldier and analyst's read on readiness, supply chains and civil resilience - with HMS Dragon as the awkward case study.
Read →Number 10 North
A Prime Minister running the country from a GCHQ building in Manchester. Is Heron House the right home while Ancoats is built - or a site so secure it breeds its own breaches? A TESSOC read on pattern, place, and the public who end up sharing the risk.
Read →Tactical incident briefs across the TESSOC spectrum
Short, graphical breakdowns of single incidents - the facts on a 5WH spine, the sequence mapped, the impact weighed, and the lesson that should carry. Filterable by date, region, category and actor.
Get in touch
For contract and consultancy work, a specific assessment, or a conversation about a permanent role - the door is open. Tell me the problem; I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.