Ginger Cat is a U.K. cyber security consulting service based in the Scottish Highlands and run by Colin Topping. It serves clients locally, nationally, and globally.
Colin Topping
Colin’s role in cyber security spans over two decades. He was a key member of the UK military’s inaugural cyber network security team before supporting the MOD for a further 11 years through his work at Airbus Defence & Space, Hewlett Packard, and DXC. During this time, Colin became a trusted advisor to his peers in both the MOD and military, notably while serving as Head of Security Operations.
Following his tenure in defence, Colin joined Rolls-Royce plc as Cyber Incident Director, where he spent five years driving advancements in the company’s cyber security practices. He developed and implemented Rolls-Royce’s cyber incident response plan, led the resolution of multiple cyber-related incidents, and strengthened their third-party risk management through evidence-based practices. He also matured their global vulnerability management capability, helped establish the Cyber Champions program to raise cyber awareness across the company, and led cyber initiatives for the early careers program. Additionally, he co-designed cyber resilience and crisis management exercises used by the executive team.
Colin has been an active Industry Member of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for over five years.
Where he has advised them on public/private partnerships, and being a contributor to the Board Toolkit.
He is also a member of the Steering Committee and Industry Lead of the Industrial Control Systems, Community of Interest (ICS COI), a group of over 400 experts from the NCSC, regulators, industry, academia, and vendors working to address the challenges of protecting Operational Technology (OT).
A Fellow of the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Colin is currently pursuing a part-time PhD at the University of Bristol, focusing on safeguarding critical national infrastructure from supply chain vulnerabilities.
Passionate about nurturing the next generation of cyber security professionals, Colin frequently engages with schools and universities. He also founded the Rolls-Royce “Women in Cyber” Summer Internship Program and the associated annual WiC conference, which promotes cyber security careers to female undergraduate students as part of the NCSC CyberFirst program.
More details about roles, qualifications, and certifications can be found via his personal LinkedIn profile.
