With more than 40 years’ experience in the security and crime prevention industries, Martin Smith MBE is a well-known, colourful and highly respected personality in the information assurance and cybersecurity world. He is an established and successful communicator, visionary, speaker and blogger on his passion for improving online trust.

Martin gained his degree in behavioural psychology before spending 15 years as a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force Security (Provost) Branch. After being awarded an MBE for this work, he left the Service to establish a second career in the commercial sector.

He founded The Security Awareness Special Interest Group (SASIG) in 2004 as a subscription-free networking forum for security practitioners. Its membership now comprises more than 6,000 individuals representing some 2,000 organisations from both the public and private sectors.

Martin is a Fellow of The Security Institute and a Freeman of both the City of London and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. In 2017, he received a lifetime achievement award at The Outstanding Security Performance Awards (The OSPAs) for his services to the security industry.