Matt Whelan
Matt Whelan is one of Australia's leading IT identities with a long career encompassing writing, teaching, software development and consultancy. He has been involved in information security since he conducted his first penetration test in 1984 and began lecturing on the subject in 1986.
His comprehensive experience in creating and implementing security strategies in the corporate environment led to the development of ALC's flagship "Network Security Essentials" seminar, while his dedicated 'know your enemy' research program resulted in the acclaimed hands-on "Hacking Windows Masterclass". Matt has trained security staff for major corporates and government in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, including Defence in all three countries, the Singapore and NZ Police eCrime units, all leading banks, many universities, airlines, telecommunications and aerospace companies and even divisions of NASA.
He is founder and Director of Net-Wide Security Solutions (www.net-security.com.au), a specialist security firm that offers both custom and packaged solutions targeted at small and medium enterprise environments. Projects include telephone billing systems, web-based database systems and web-enabled MLM systems with products such as Delphi, VB and Access connecting to back ends like Interbase and MS SQL Server. Clients include listed Australian Biotech, Telco and Travel groups, a national ISP, and Australian and UK-based financial services specialists with extensive on-line operations.
Matt is that "rare creature"- a software 'guru' who also knows his hardware inside-out. He combines unusually broad technical prowess with extensive business management experience.. As a writer Matt was publisher and a major contributor to Your Computer magazine and subsequently was Founding Editor of PC Database Advisor. He has worked for Consolidated Press, John Fairfax, and the Independent Print and Media Group (both as publisher and as IT Manager).
As a trainer, Matt has delivered courses on software, hardware, operating systems and security in many countries around the world - Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Netherlands. As a developer, Matt has completed software projects for Computer Associates, Borland, Ashton-Tate and Nantucket, including a compiler for the dBase IV language that was sold internationally.
