About

About

Matt Edwards – CISO, Pentester, SecOps/DevOps Engineer

I’m Matt Edwards—CISO, pentester, and senior SecOps/DevOps engineer. I build cybersecurity programs that turn risk into resilience and a genuine business advantage, with a bias for practical defenses and measurable outcomes.

The hard part of my story started at RedEase. In 2010, I founded RedEase in Red Deer, Alberta as a hands-on IT support firm. We helped a lot of organizations move fast, but as threats evolved, we took two punches I’ll never forget: a successful social-engineering incident and a crypto-malware attack. Those events were on my watch. They forced a choice—either treat security as a checkbox, or make it my craft.

I chose the craft. I went all-in on becoming the best cybersecurity professional I could be: thousands of hours in labs and real-world engagements, red-team tradecraft aligned to OWASP and MITRE ATT&CK, blue-team detection engineering, incident response under pressure, and, most importantly, closing attack paths instead of producing shelfware. I rebuilt how I work using these principles: assume breach, design for recovery, automate controls, verify with evidence.

Those “life lessons” became systems. I created Cocoon CS, a cybersecurity compliance company, to turn hard-won experience into reusable playbooks. We operationalize SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, CMMC, GDPR, HIPAA, and PIPEDA with artifacts, runbooks, and evidence workflows that teams can actually sustain. The goal isn’t paperwork; it’s provable security that passes audits without slowing the business.

In 2025, I rebranded RedEase as EZ Support to deliver secure-by-default IT and hands-on support for growing teams—practical help that pairs well with compliance. If Cocoon CS codifies the program, EZ Support keeps the lights on, the identities locked down, and the restorables restorable.

Want the full story behind my path into cybersecurity? I recorded a short video that walks through the turning points, lessons, and why this work still keeps me energized.

Watch "My Cybersecurity Journey"

What I Do

Penetration Testing (Red/Purple Teaming)

I lead offensive security engagements across web, desktop, mobile, API, and cloud. Engagements blend manual testing, adversary emulation aligned to ATT&CK and OWASP, and collaborative purple-team working sessions. Deliverables emphasize business impact, clear remediation, and proof-of-fix.

CISO & Program Leadership

I build right-sized security programs mapped to SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, CMMC, NIST 800-53/171, GDPR, HIPAA, and PIPEDA. Roadmaps prioritize control effectiveness and operational fit over checkbox compliance.

Compliance, Codified (Cocoon CS)

Playbooks, policies, evidence registers, and automated workflows that move teams from intent to audit-ready reality—so security improvements stick.

Operating Principles

  • Own the outcome. If it’s on my desk, it’s my responsibility—no excuses.
  • Prove it, teach it. Every assessment yields demonstrations, artifacts, and workshops.
  • Automate the repeatable. Codify controls so good security becomes muscle memory.
  • Assume breach, design for recovery. Detect fast, contain early, and practice restores.
  • Map to business value. Tie recommendations to risk reduction, uptime, revenue protection, or delivery speed.

Selected Highlights

  • Founder & Senior IT Engineer, EZ Support (2010 → present; rebrand in 2025) — operating secure-by-default IT for SMEs.
  • Founder & CISO, Cocoon CS — operationalizing security and privacy programs with reusable playbooks and evidence workflows.
  • Speaker & advisor — practical cyber programs for organizations that operate across Canada and beyond.

Core Stack & Frameworks

  • Offense & Assurance: adversary emulation, manual exploitation, control validation, attack-path analysis, social-engineering resilience, cloud/identity abuse modeling, proof-of-fix verification.
  • Defense & Operations: detection engineering, threat hunting, incident-response runbooks, vulnerability and exposure management, hardening baselines, identity-first security, zero-trust principles, backup/restore strategy and recovery drills, telemetry quality and retention, service levels, and on-call practices.
  • Governance, Risk & Compliance: risk assessment and control design, policy lifecycle management, evidence mapping and audit readiness, privacy-by-design (PIAs/DPIAs), data-subject request handling, vendor risk management and third-party assurance, secure SDLC, awareness and training programs, metrics, and executive reporting.

How to Work With Me

If you need a focused pen test with actionable fixes, a CISO to stand up a right-sized program, or a partner to guide your team through compliance without slowing delivery, I’m here to help. Let's share the journey!