• About Syndis
    •
  • Service
    •
  • Staff
    •
  • Contact
    •

About

Syndis is an Icelandic information security think-tank based in Reykjavik, Iceland, specializing in providing bespoke attack solutions. Syndis services clients with the most demanding security needs. Research is central to the Syndis vision and is considered core to the innovative approaches supplied to the clients.

Vision

To drive security innovation for tomorrow's premier organizations.

Mission

By leading research in offensive security, developing bold technologies and applying these to counter real world threats.

Result-driven assessments

Services with local knowledge

Emulation of persistent threats

Innovative research and custom solutions

Close approximation to real-world attacks

Service

Goal Oriented Security

In an attempt to counter the shortcomings in the practices of "pen-testing-as-usual", we pursue our own unique methodology we call Goal Oriented Attacks. We engage our customers in a manner that far more closely mirrors the process used by an actual malicious attacker.

Consultancy

Perhaps you don't need a full-on security assessment, penetration test, or in-depth technical security work. Sometimes you just need to talk to an expert in order to understand the state-of-the-art, validate the claims of a vendor, get a "sanity check" on something you are planning to do, or to you just want to bounce an idea off of someone who really knows what they're talking about.

Custom Research

Syndis as a company with a vision that centers around research, development, and innovation aims to provide services in a way that integrates well with information security research. We are take on specialized research projects that extract maximum value from our technical abilities.

Our Attack Methodology

At a high-level, Syndis provides a commercial consulting service for which real-world attack operations are simulated. The cyclical approach focuses on identifying an organization's Resources (both human and technical) that are open to attack, compromising them to turn them into an Asset over which Syndis has a level of control, and using the Capabilities provided by Assets to realize the engagement Goals defined together with the client.

Syndis principals have at least ten years of experience each and have been engaged to perform penetration testing for a range of organizations, both domestic and international, including government consulting, digital entertainment and manufacturing industries.

Staff

Rich Smith

Co-Founder & CEO of Syndis

Rich has worked professionally in the space of offensive security for over 10 years where his research has been focused on the areas offensive tooling and framework design, post-exploitation strategies along with continual vulnerability research and exploit development. In addition to his research, Rich performs consulting and attack services across a range of verticals including National Security, Financial, Technology, and the Entertainment industry. [more]

Prior to co-founding Syndis, Rich led the Attack Technology Division at Kyrus Tech (DC), held a Vice President role at Morgan Stanley (NY) as the lead cyber-threat specialist, was a senior researcher at Immunity Inc (FL) and led the Research In Offensive Technologies and Threats group at Hewlett-Packard's European Labs (UK).

Rich is an internationally recognized expert and has spoken at numerous conferences and has participated in industry, government and community sponsored information security groups and initiatives.

Ýmir Vigfússon, PhD

Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer

Ýmir is Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University and leads the research strategy of Syndis. He obtained earned a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University in 2009 where his dissertation was nominated for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation award, and worked as a post-doctoral scientist at IBM Research on innovations in distributed systems. [more]

With more than 15 years of experience in computer security, Ýmir is a pioneer in offensive exploitation of computer software. He invented various techniques to leverage security vulnerabilities in software, and wrote several of the first "Format string" and "Heap overflow" exploits. Ýmir has published over 30 academic papers, holds 3 patents and loves cats. His professional web site is ymsir.com.

Hörður Ellert Ólafsson

Co-Founder & Head of Marketing &
Business Development

Hörður works out of the Denmark office. Hörður has a 10 years of entrepreneurial and consultancy experience in Europe and Africa. Hörður has consulted for a variety of organizations, both domestic and international, ranging from government, to small NGO's, to startups and large companies within the creative, technology, and sustainability industries. [more]

Currently Hörður studying Entrepreneurial Leadership at the KaosPilots, Denmark. Hörður's education has focused on Creative Project Leadership, Creative Business Design, Creative Process Design and Creative Leadership.

Theódór R. Gíslason

Co-Founder & Principal Researcher

Theódór has over 13 years of working professionally in the space of offensive information security with his interests focusing on penetration testing, exploit development, offensive tooling and vulnerability research. Theódór has performed security assessments, penetration testing, malware analysis, and security consulting for many of Iceland's largest organizations, including financial, government, and other technology oriented companies. [more]

He is a popular instructor and speaker in Iceland, having for instance taught two computer security courses at the University of Iceland as well as a technical security course at Reykjavik University in 2012. Theódór has also presented at various conferences on state-of-the-art topics relating to information security.

Prior to co-founding Syndis, Theódór worked for Capacent, TERIS, and KPMG, where he performed technical offensive security consulting and assessments.

Árni Már Harðarson

Co-Founder & Principal Researcher

Árni is a security researcher and has accrued over 10 years of working experience in the offensive security field. In his work, he focuses chiefly on mobile security, application security, exploit development and vulnerability research. Árni has consulted for a plethora of large companies from the financial and government sectors, as well as other technology-based companies that operate in both the domestic and international market. [more]

Árni is a frequent speaker on technical security topics, both for private and public audiences, and has also given talks at the UTMessan and Múladagar conferences in 2012. Árni is also the co-founder of the Nordic Security Conference that was held at Harpan in 2012.

Contact Syndis

 +354 415 1337 |  info@syndis.is

 Byggingu Háskólans í Reykjavík

Menntavegi 1, 101 Reykjavik, Ísland

Sign Up for Our Intelligence Feed

Image of Reykjavik University
  • Reykjavík
  • ·
  • New York City
  • ·
  • Copenhagen