Arete Incident Response Adds Elite Incident Response and Forensic Investigators to its Canadian Cyber Response Team

TORONTO, Feb. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arete Incident Response, an elite team of cyber security experts and incident responders, announced today the addition of key personnel for its Canada operations.

Together, the new team members bring years of experience leading challenging, cyber incident response and forensic investigations for hundreds of Canadian organizations of all sizes and industries. 

"As the cybersecurity skills gap becomes more acute, organizations are struggling to deal with the velocity and sophistication of ransomware, advanced cyberattacks, and the fall out of data breaches. This is driving tremendous demand for our elite incident response and forensics teams," said Joe Mann, CEO and founder, Arete Incident Response. "This incredible team could not have joined Arete at a more opportune time. Their unique blend of talent and professionalism will augment the Arete leadership structure and help us continue to grow the business by providing excellent security services to our customers."

The five cybersecurity experts will lead our incident response team in Canada – guiding customers through forensic investigations and remediating on-going attacks.

Joining the Arete team are:

Shelly Ma, Director of Digital Forensics & Incident Response

As an engagement director, Ma's core focus is to assist companies going through cyber events by rapidly addressing security incidents and threats within an organization. Shelley manages a highly skilled team of first responders and digital detectives to pit the wits against cybercriminals, investigating traces of complex digital crimes. She is an EnCE-certified investigator and specializes in ransomware investigations, breach investigations and litigation forensics. Shelley has over 5 years' experience in digital forensic investigations. Prior to embarking on her cyber career, she worked in traditional forensic science solving murders in South Africa. Ma was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to pursue her graduate education at the George Washington University, where she earned her Master's in Science in Digital Forensics.

Jaycee Roth, Associate Director of Digital Forensics and Incident Response

Roth specializes in ransomware investigations, digital forensics and incident response. Throughout her career, Jaycee has conducted and/or supervised over 250 ransomware engagements and cyber breach investigations. She has expertise in dealing with extortion events, including communication with attacking parties, acquisition of decryption tools and post-incident mitigation and remediation. A speaker at various cybersecurity conferences and events, Jaycee is an experienced cybersecurity incident management professional who honed skills at a globally recognized managed security service provider as a lead analyst and supervisor of the security operations center.

Dan Lownsbrough, Technical Deputy and Senior Forensic Investigator

Lownsbrough specializes in ransom negotiations and conducts forensic analysis. Dan is highly specialized in the areas of ransomware and business email compromise. He holds a BSc degree in Computer Science from Trent University and an Advanced Diploma in Computer Security and Investigations from Fleming college. He is also an avid programmer and enjoys developing new tools to assist with forensic analysis and incident response.

Faith Magcalas, Senior Forensic Analyst

As a Senior Forensic Analyst, Magcalas, has dedicated her life to reading the footprints that threat actors leave behind in a victim's environment. She is especially focused on ransomware and recognizes the importance of keeping up to date on attackers' evolving methodologies. After graduating from university with a major in Computer Science, Faith thought it would be meaningful to apply her technical know-how to the field of information security. She has worked in managed security services as an analyst, where she investigated security events for a wide variety of clients and configured their security monitoring systems. She gained experience with ransomware at a previous firm, where she performed forensic analysis and negotiated with attackers.

Aaron Whelan, Digital Forensic Investigator

Whelan's focus is delving into the forensic artifacts and analyzing logs to identify suspicious or malicious activities within a network, whether it be for a client hit with a ransomware attack or a business email compromise. Aaron also specializes in threat actor communications for ransom negotiation and malware analysis. As a serious Threat Hunter, he can be found fighting evil on client networks. Aaron moved to Canada from the United Kingdom and graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Computer Security and Investigations from Fleming college.

"Canada is an important market for Arete.  Our team is an ideal mix of experience, expertise and diverse skills. We are looking forward to expanding our presence in Canada, and we are confident this team will set the benchmark for excellence in incident response services," said Brookes Taney, VP of Global Sales, Arete Incident Response.

About Arete Incident Response
Arete Incident Response partners with clients to reduce the burden of preparing for, detecting and responding to cyber-attacks. Arete's elite team of cyber security experts have created unparalleled capabilities to address the entire cyber incident life cycle, from incident response readiness assessments to post-incident remediation. Their core skills include triage, digital forensics, malware reverse engineering, remediation and testifying expertise.  Arete works with organizations to provide highly customized advice specific to their business size and industry. Arete's advisory services provide legally defensible, compliant cyber strategies that assist the C-Suite and Boards of Directors to continuously improve the organizations' cyber posture.

Engaging Arete's team of experts gives organizations the confidence to respond to a data breach with access to the world's leading cybersecurity professionals – anywhere in the world – within hours. For more information, visit Areteir.com or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Media Contact:
Brookes Taney
(952) 607-5935
btaney@areteir.com

SOURCE Arete Advisors