Security

For a lot of product and engineering teams, security has a branding problem. Too often, it shows up at the end of the process as the function that says no. No, that architecture won’t pass review. No, that workflow isn’t compliant. No, you can’t ship it that way. The problem isn’t that the risks are imaginary. Most of the time, they aren’t. The problem is what happens next: teams learn to avoid security for as long as possible. They treat security review like a tollbooth at the end of the road instead of a design partnership at the beginning. ...

Back when mobile payments were still in their infancy—long before Apple Pay became a household name—I found myself captivated by the possibilities of NFC technology. As a grad student at Dalhousie University, I started tinkering with NFC and co-founded a small startup called Alfred NFC, where we experimented with peer-to-peer transactions. That was my first real taste of what would become a lifelong fascination with secure technology ecosystems. As graduation approached and the reality set in that Alfred NFC wouldn’t become the next big thing, I faced a crossroads. I applied to countless Canadian companies and banks for NFC-related work—anything that would let me stay in this space I was so passionate about. But the callbacks never came. So I pivoted: I interviewed for several Java developer roles and received multiple offers. It was a safe, predictable path forward. ...