Cybersecurity consultancy Crypsis adds directors in New York and Austin
Mclean, Virginia-based The Crypsis Group has hired two forensics experts as directors to bolster its consulting capabilities. Billy Evans Jr. joins the firm’s Austin office as a director, while Stephen Ramey joins the New York office.
Founded in 2015, Crypsis provides public and private sector clients with incident response, risk management, and digital forensics services. The firm’s incident response offering helps clients identify how attackers infiltrated, eliminate threats, and determine breach severity. The firm also helps companies effectively handle ransomware and crypto-extortion.
In the risk management service line, Crypsis helps clients strengthen security operations and programs, covering areas such as cybersecurity planning and cloud architecture review, as well as GDPR compliance.
The firm’s digital investigations service line delivers forensics, analysis, recovery, and reporting from digital sources. Services include expert witness advisory to support clients with digital evidence in courtrooms, as well as internal investigations into malicious employee activities such as data leaking and embezzlement.
With the threat of cyberattacks increasing, as digitalization continues to expand, the demand for cybersecurity services is likewise rising. It’s a good gig to be in, unlike, say, print journalism or department store retail.
Evans Jr. is an expert in computer forensics and digital evidence analysis. A certified Department of Defense Cyber Crime Investigator, Evans has more than 15 years of experience in managing and conducting cyber incident response, cyber counterintelligence, investigations, and security projects.
He was previously a director of global cyber risk services at consultancy Alvarez & Marsal for more than two years. There, he led global teams that helped Fortune 500 firms ensure cyber-readiness and regulatory compliance.
He also seven years at the Air Force Office of Special Investigations as a leader of Cyber Flight, a multiagency task force that includes the FBI and NSA. In the role, he oversaw 60 cyber professionals, neutralized numerous cyberattacks, and orchestrated incident response to insider threats.
Evans additionally spent two years as a senior security analyst in the computer forensics lab of financial services company USAA, managing digital forensics, litigation support, incident response, and e-discovery. Before USAA, he spent another 10 years at the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, first as a special agent and cyber team lead, and then as a cyber operations and investigations manager.
Ramey, meanwhile, will lead investigations and support clients dealing with information security events. He has more than a decade of experience helping clients protect against, respond to, and investigate cyberattacks.
Ramey was previously EY’s global digital forensics and incident response coordination leader for just under a year. Before that, he spent over a year as a partner at AI consulting firm Vista Analytics, where he built the company’s digital forensics practice. Prior to Vista, Ramey spent three years as a director at management consultancy Navigant, where he led the firm’s East Coast digital forensics and incident response team.
He also spent more than a year as a manager at Big Four accounting and consulting firm PwC, where he led a team of forensic analysts in investigating a suspected nation state-sponsored breach of a client’s network. Ramey started his career at Deloitte, where he spent more than seven years and worked on issues related to mobile device forensics.
“The addition of these highly acclaimed specialists to help lead our Austin and New York offices is further evidence of The Crypsis Group’s determination to respond to the growing need for cyber security expertise by building the most qualified and accomplished team anywhere – and to strengthen our presence from coast to coast," Bret Padres, Crypsis CEO, said.
Related: US businesses turning to consulting firms amid cybersecurity fears
