About
Senior judgment,
applied directly.
Founder
Ed Giles
I spent 21 years at Northern Trust, a global financial institution — the last 17 of them in cybersecurity — before starting Erus Consulting to bring that same senior-level judgment to organizations that need it but don’t need (or want to pay for) a full-time executive hire.
I’ve been a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) since 2004. What I’ve found matters more than the letters after my name is this: I get security projects and programs to “done” faster, because I can move fluidly between complex technical problems and the business and regulatory realities that actually decide whether a security initiative succeeds.
Philosophy
Know. Manage. Enable.
Security should make the business move with more confidence, not less. That belief shapes everything I do, and it breaks into three steps:
Know.
Before I recommend anything, I learn the environment and the business objectives it has to serve. A control that’s right for one organization can be wrong for another — context comes first.
Manage.
I identify the controls that actually meet the requirement — not the most impressive ones, not the easiest ones to sell, the right ones.
Enable.
I make sure those controls do their job without quietly breaking something else. A security program that slows the business down without a clear reason isn’t a mature program — it’s a tax.
This approach is also why I work the way I do: as a mentor, not a manager, when I’m building out a security function alongside your team. I’d rather hand someone the judgment to own a problem than hand them a checklist.
Tools of the trade
Where AI fits
I use AI tools daily in my own practice — hands-on, not theoretical. I work across ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, and Gemini, and I’ve built AI-assisted applications ranging from small targeted tools to platforms supporting large user populations. When I advise a client on secure AI adoption, it comes from having actually done the work of deploying these tools securely, not from reading about it.
Giving back
Beyond client work
I conduct free Cyber Safety for Seniors presentations in the Chicago area, helping older adults recognize and avoid online scams. It’s not part of the business — it’s a way of putting the same expertise to use for people who need it and can’t afford to pay for it. Read more →
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