Retired Royal Navy Rear Admiral Steve Brunton CBE and Steve Wilkinson, a global data privacy leader, have joined Edinburgh-based advanced cybersecurity startup, Ionburst, as UK advisors.
Ionburst has announced two high-profile advisor appointments, with Rear Admiral Steve Brunton joining alongside Steve Wilkinson, Data Protection Subject Matter Expert at the UK Cabinet Office Government Digital Service (GDS).
Now operating as an Independent Advisor to a number of Government and Industry organisations, Rear Admiral Brunton’s military career included ship building, and submarine systems, Information Infrastructure and Crypto procurement.
Steve Wilkinson is advisor to the UK Government Cabinet Office on Data Privacy and has worked extensively with both the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), as well as Henley Business School, where he is the only lecturer on Data Privacy.
They join during a significant growth period at Ionburst, as it builds its UK and overseas business, with offices in the United States and Australia.
Commenting on the appointments, Ionburst Founder, Dr David Lanc said: “The Cloud needs a new philosophy for protecting the privacy of mission critical information and workloads. We have developed a best-in-class data protection solution to empower this, and its relevance is supported by these powerful industry leaders strengthening our advisory team.”
Rear Admiral Steve Brunton CBE said: “I’m excited to join the Ionburst journey. I believe Ionburst has the ability to help protect us and our way of life in the digital world. I look forward to working with the Ionburst team to help engage with Government and the Defence sector, and to help navigate the next phase of the company’s growth.”
Steve Wilkinson commented: “Ionburst is at the forefront of data security, privacy and sovereignty. In my experience, it’s unique in solving the well-known issues of data privacy compliance and protection from unwanted surveillance in one solution. This is vital to preserve the privacy of sensitive information, which has been made more critical with the EU Court of Justice recently invalidating the EU-US data privacy shield and Brexit.”
Lanc added: “We have big ambitions to help industry and government protect citizen and sensitive data in a world that also demands carbon efficiency. Welcoming Steve and Steve as distinguished advisors demonstrates our aspirations.”
Founded in late 2018, Ionburst has developed a paradigm shift in data protection, through its innovations in privacy by default and data defence in depth.