I have managed to help my mentees secure cybersecurity jobs, file successful papers for cybersecurity conferences and have pushed mentees beyond what they thought was possible. Briefly, I advocate an open-ended mentorship style where I would like mentees to take ownership of their goals, whilst I guide them towards them.

I have mentored juniors both within and outside Singapore to obtain jobs and advanced certifications necessary for cybersecurity job roles, from non-tech roles such as plumbing. I have also managed to inspire mentees to present at conferences such as Singapore's SINCON, Romania's DEFCAMP and FIRST in Uzbekistan.

I have pivoted across consultancy and end-user roles. Now, I look at AI security, product security, cyber compliance as well as threat modeling, and penetration tests. My expertise spans government, aviation, transportation, defense, and financial sectors.

I have contributed to the open-source cybersecurity community, including creating vulnerable machines on Vulnhub from 2018 to 2021. I frequently speak at conferences in multiple countries such as SECCON (Japan), DEFCAMP (Romania), GCC 2025 (Taiwan), Seasides 2025 (India), FIRST @ Central Asia (Uzbekistan), SINCON (Singapore) and the inaugurual DEFCON Singapore. I also conduct career talks to inspire students to pursue cybersecurity careers.

At Thales, I led the development of "Defend the Breach" (DTB), a cybersecurity gamification experience where players role-play as CISOs making complex decisions. I have also been on VULNCON's advisory board since 2024, providing technical thought leadership and moderating executive-level panels on cybersecurity's future.

Outside Thales, I co-lead Threat Modeling Connect's Singapore chapter, and am a ISACA Emerging Trends Working Group member. I publish on avenues such as ISACA's blog, newsletter, journal as well as InfoSecurity Magazine.

My credentials include the OSCE3, OSCP, CISSP, and CRISC certifications. I am currently finishing Master's in Cybersecurity at Georgia Tech (OMSCY).

For more information about me, visit my website at https://donavan.sg and my cybersecurity blog at https://donavan.sg/blog, and arrange for an introductory call.