In 2017, with GDPR on the horizon, I became a fulltime Data Protection Consultant and certified Data Protection Officer.
Having a software development background and an attacker's mindset due to my prior work in IT security, I am able to offer a holistic approach to solving data protection issues which is well received by customers. I focus on enablement and taking customers by the hand to guide them through the process of implementing GDPR-compliant, feature-rich projects.
As I have never been the stuffy type, I combine expertise with a friendly but always professional style.
In late 2011 my boss at the time told me he wanted to introduce me to some friends of his. I agreed and a few month later started working at sourcepark GmbH as a Software Developer and Information Security Officer.
As sourcepark mainly operates in the automotive sector, I was soon introduced to the inner workings of large enterprises and their needs. In custom software projects we built what our customers needed, tailored exactly to what they wanted.
I started consulting our customers on information security soon, which had been a private passion of mine. In 2013 we participated in an event organized by Berlin's justice senator at the time and attempted hacking his laptop live for an audience.
Over time, I wrote less code and focused more on IT security and consulting work, as did the whole company.
When in 2011 my professor asked me to join him at work, I decided to put my education to the first real-world test and agreed.
For a year I worked as a Software Developer and Systems Administrator for Cornelsen Verlag GmbH, a publishing company for school books, while finishing my Master's Thesis.
This job was the perfect opportunity to dip my toes in how companies work and what they need. I wrote custom software specifically tailored to my employer's needs and got the work done.
I still remember the excitement I felt when my code, based on an undocumented legacy codebase, ran for the first time — right in production, as there was no test environment. To my great relief the code ran flawlessly and what could have ended in disaster is now a pleasant memory.
When I finished school in 2004, I decided that I wanted to study Media Informatics with a pracitcal approach. That's why I enrolled at a University of Applied Sciences.
That practical approach combined with teachers right from the industry let me dive deep into realistic scenarios and learn how the world turns, as they say.
I wrote my Bachelor's Thesis about graphs and algorithms, followed by my Master's Thesis about microcontrollers and early forms of home automation.
A client-server approach to effective WPA2 passphrase cracking, written in golang.
An electron/VueJS app to complement an online time recording system.
(I can't publish the source codes)