Thesis Title: Rational Decision Making in Cybersecurity
Supervisors: Dr Jonathan Lusthaus
Martin is a part-time doctoral researcher looking at cybersecurity from a sociological perspective. Alongside his academic work, he is Technical Lead of Security Research and EMEA Lead for Strategic Planning and Communications at Talos, Cisco’s threat intelligence and security research organisation.
With over 20 years of experience in the cyber industry, Martin’s work explores how organisations understand and respond to threats. In addition to being a Chartered Engineer and Certified Information Systems Security Professional, he is an England Athletics licensed running coach and enjoys trail running in his spare time.
Martin's research investigates why organisations often fail to implement effective cybersecurity measures despite understanding the risks and solutions, exploring how decision-making processes and organisational culture influence the prioritisation of resources. He seeks to characterise whether cybersecurity strategies are shaped more by external best practices or internal cultural norms.
The project seeks to explain the gap between threat awareness and defensive action, offering a sociological perspective on how rationality, perception, and culture drive cybersecurity decisions in the evolving threat landscape.
Previous Education: BSc, University of Bristol; MPhil, University of Cambridge; MSc Software Engineering, University of Oxford.
