Founder & PrincipalSteve Sharma
IRAPCISSPCREST
18+ years across four major banks, defence and government. Author, The CISO's AI Firewall.
About Cybersecurity Link
Security and AI governance, led by named executives.
Virtual CISO and Virtual Chief AI Officer leadership, with AI security, AI governance and cybersecurity assurance for enterprise, government and regulated organisations.
Cybersecurity Link is the trading name of SS Network Solutions Pty Ltd, ABN 66 124 215 970, founded in 2007 in Australia. Everything on this page is stated so you can check it.
5 named executives · 🚩14 register-linked credentials
THE RECORD
Evidence before adjectives.
Named executives†05
Every engagement lead named before signature
Meet them Register-linked credentials†14🚩[verify] Each linked to its issuing register
Verify Reference points05ISO/IEC 42001 · ISO/IEC 27001 · NIST AI RMF · OWASP LLM Top 10 · Essential Eight (AU)
See the map Engagements delivered†09Across four sectors; published with permission
See the work Founded†2007Australia · SS Network Solutions Pty Ltd · ABN 66 124 215 970
Entity detailsFor directors: go directly to what changed and who is accountable.
🚩 Credential count to confirm01 / WHY THE FIRM EXISTS
Very few have named the person accountable for AI.
Almost every organisation now runs on it.
Security leaders inherited the responsibility without the budget, headcount or mandate, and still carry the exposure when something fails.
Between a large network, a single-discipline boutique and a governance platform sits a gap: a named executive who can govern AI and secure it, and who stays when the standard changes.
Cybersecurity Link exists to fill that gap and nothing else. Every engagement is led by a named senior executive. Every claim we make links to something you can check.
02 / POSITION
A founder-led practice, stated plainly.
From the founder
I refocused this practice because I kept meeting the same person: a security leader handed AI on top of a full-time job, without budget, mandate or answers for the board.
This is a founder-led firm, and I would rather say that plainly than let you work it out. I am accountable for every engagement, and no engagement runs on me alone: each has a named executive and a published method. Where additional delivery capacity is required, we extend capability through our strategic partnership network. Cybersecurity Link has been trading since 2007, and I will not dress that up as more than it is. What I bring is more than 18 years across four major banks, defence and government, credentials that link to their registers, and a method published in full below.
Steve SharmaFounder & PrincipalPublished work
The people in the proposal are the people on the work.
Every engagement is assigned a named senior executive before the engagement begins. Where additional specialists are required, they are identified in the proposal and subject to client approval.
Founder & Principal
Steve Sharma
“Governing AI and securing AI are not the same discipline, and most organisations have only bought one.”
IRAP AssessorCISSPCREST
AI governance · AI security · board and executive advisory
Author Hub 🚩 LinkedIn link pending
Cybersecurity DirectorManju Sharma
CISMISO 27001Risk
15+ years leading enterprise risk, governance and compliance programmes across government and regulated sectors.
HR & Admin DirectorSanjeev Kumar
PeopleOperationsCompliance
15+ years overseeing strategic talent management, workforce operations and administrative governance for technology enterprises.
COO India OperationsParas Sharma
OperationsDeliveryAgile
12+ years driving offshore service delivery, operational scaling and cross-border security engineering operations.
Cybersecurity DirectorMansee Sharma
ISO 42001NIST AICloud
Specialist in emerging tech security, AI governance frameworks and cloud security architecture for modern enterprise environments.
CONTINUITY PLANIf someone is unavailable
Every engagement has a named lead. Where a second executive or specialist is needed, they are named in the proposal and subject to client approval. Decisions and evidence live in shared systems, not one person's head. Where additional delivery capacity is required, we extend capability through our strategic partnership network.
One governance system. Mapped many ways.
We build one governance system and map it, so a change to a standard updates the work instead of restarting it.
ISO 42001NIST AI RMFOWASP LLMISO 27001Essential Eight AU
Every mapping is documented so an auditor can follow it. ISO/IEC 42001 and ISO/IEC 27001 are management-system standards; NIST AI RMF is a voluntary framework; OWASP LLM Top 10 is a technical resource; Australia's Essential Eight is evolving.
012-4 weeks
Establish the picture
Assess what exists, what is deployed and what is actually governed.
You receive
Mapped control baseline, gap register and costed remediation sequence.
026-12 weeks
Build the system
Design the governance architecture and technical controls together.
You receive
Governance system, control set, test procedures and board reporting pack.
03Ongoing
Run and evidence it
The named executive leads, reports to leadership or the board, and maintains evidence.
You receive
Quarterly reporting, maintained evidence and standards-change notices.
04Defined at start
Hand it over
Every engagement is designed for transfer to your own people.
You receive
Documented operating model and a named internal owner.
The full methodology, published🚩 Link pending
Not values. Consequences.
Each commitment includes the thing a buyer can use to test it.
A named senior executive leads every engagement.
Interchangeable resourcing works for large networks. Our model is different: the engagement lead is identified before work begins.
The name is in the proposal before signature. If we cannot name them, we decline the work.
No referral commissions. AISF kept out of our own findings.
Product margin can make a recommendation worth less than it appears. Our advice is not funded by a vendor sale.
We hold no reseller agreements and take no referral commissions. Our one product, AISF, stays separate from our advisory and assessment findings.
We do not assure work we advised on.
The same firm advising and then attesting creates a conflict, however carefully it is managed.
Where work crosses that boundary, we say so at scoping and refer the assurance elsewhere.
Every claim on this site can be checked.
Credentials to their registers. Standards to their publishers. Regulatory statements to their source, dated and jurisdiction-labelled.
If you find a claim you cannot verify, tell us and we will remove or evidence it within five business days.
How the model differs.
Each alternative is the right answer for someone. The useful question is where its advantage ends.
Scroll horizontally to compare
| Alternative | Genuinely better at | The gap | Cybersecurity Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large network | Multi-country scale and institutional comfort | The pitch team may not be the delivery team | Named executive in the proposal |
| Specialist boutique | Depth inside one discipline | The buyer owns the seams between disciplines | AI governance and AI security in one system |
| Governance platform | Speed and cost for a snapshot | A snapshot does not operate the programme | System, tests and named accountability |
| Permanent hire | Full attention and context | Time to hire, total cost and single-person risk | Capability now, transferred when ready |
| Do nothing | No cost when exposure is genuinely small | Exposure is often larger than it appears | A bounded assessment to establish which is true |
Evidence, with permission attached.
From policy on paper to controls that can be tested.
🚩 Challenge, approach and outcome to be supplied from a permissioned engagement, in wording the client has approved.
- Organisation size
- 🚩[size band]
- Approach
- 🚩[approach]
- Timeframe
- 🚩[duration]
- Engagement type
- 🚩[engagement type]
OUTCOME🚩
🚩 Outcome to be confirmed in writing by the client.
CLIENT EXAMPLES
Security clients rarely want to be named, because a reference can read as admitting a past problem. Logos appear only with written permission. Clients who ask not to be named get the discretion we would give you.
08 / IN THEIR WORDS
Corroboration beside the work.
🚩 QUOTE PENDING · NOT A CLIENT STATEMENT
🚩[Client quote] Published only with written permission and in the client's own words: no star ratings, stock portraits or edited sentiment.
Named quotation🚩 Permission pending
- Role
- 🚩 To confirm
- Sector
- 🚩 To confirm
- Organisation size
- 🚩 To confirm
Partners, without ambiguity.
Delivery, channel and professional association are different relationships. The page states which is which.
DELIVERY PARTNERSHIP🚩 Cyber Arista details to verify
Cyber Arista
Cybersecurity Link provides the executive mandate and specialist security leadership. Where additional delivery capacity is required, we extend capability through our strategic partnership network, including Cyber Arista for delivery and technology hardware.
- Contracted scope
- 🚩[scope]
- Client data
- 🚩[data access and agreement]
- Presentation
- Always identified as Cyber Arista
- Exclusions
- 🚩[engagement types]
CHANNEL PROGRAMME🚩 Terms pending
For MSPs and IT service providers
We do not take your clients direct.
Written into the partner agreement, not promised on a call. If your client approaches us independently, we tell you.
- How it works
- 🚩[white-label, co-delivery or referral]
- Commercials
- 🚩[terms]
- Escalation
- 🚩[model]
- Who fronts the client
- 🚩 You, unless you ask otherwise
MEMBERSHIPS🚩 Evidence pending
Association is not endorsement.
These are memberships and accreditations, not commercial partnerships. We receive no payment from any of them and none of them endorses us. Each name links to its source.
🚩[Association] · 🚩[Professional body]
Clarity includes what we don't do.
01Products
Our advisory is product-neutral.
No reseller agreements or referral commissions, and AISF is never a condition of an engagement.
02Certification
We don't certify anyone.
We prepare organisations for certification; accredited bodies certify.
03Operations
We're not a managed security service.
We don't run your SOC or monitor your environment around the clock.
04Resourcing
We don't do staff augmentation.
If you need hands rather than leadership, we say so on the first call.
Built for a specific kind ofaccountability.
A fit decision should be possible before a sales conversation.
Enterprise, government and regulated organisations, roughly 200 to 5,000+ people, or any government entity
Boards carrying accountability they cannot delegate
AI adoption ahead of governance
Teams that want the capability handed over, not held
Organisations under roughly 200 people, where the economics rarely work
Teams needing hands-on implementation rather than executive leadership
Buyers seeking a certificate without the system
Buyers looking only for the cheapest compliance tick
Outside that fit? Say so on the first call. We will point you toward a more appropriate firm and take nothing for the referral.
The procurement questions, before procurement asks.
Most of what a procurement or vendor-risk team asks is below. The full supplier pack is available on request.
Legal & contracting
- Legal entity
- SS Network Solutions Pty Ltd
- Trading name
- Cybersecurity Link
- ABN
- 66 124 215 970
- Registered
- Australia · trading since 2007
- Contracting
- 🚩[contracting position]
- Governing law
- 🚩[jurisdiction] · disputes 🚩[forum] · 🚩[standard terms]
Insurance
- Professional indemnity
- 🚩[level]
- Public liability
- 🚩[level]
- Cyber liability
- 🚩[level]
Security & data handling
- Data location
- 🚩[storage jurisdiction and platform]
- Subprocessors
- Cyber Arista 🚩[verify] · 🚩[cloud provider]
- Personnel screening
- 🚩[checks conducted]
- Incident notification
- 🚩[timeframe and route]
- Right to audit
- 🚩[position]
Compliance status
- ISO 27001
- 🚩[status]
- ISO 42001
- 🚩[status]
- Essential Eight
- AU · 🚩[maturity level, self-assessed]
- Independent assessment
- 🚩[status]
Procurement pathway · AU
- Panel arrangements
- 🚩[panel memberships, if any]
- If we are not on your panel
- 🚩[direct-engagement threshold or panel-listed partner route]
- Government entity experience
- 🚩[statement] · we prepare; accredited bodies certify
Need something not listed?
Email 🚩procurement@cybersecuritylink.com.au. We reply personally, usually within one business day.
🚩 Mailbox to confirm13 / WHERE TO GO NEXTTest the firm.
Test the firm.
Or test the thinking first.
Everything on this page is checkable. If something is not, tell us and we will fix it. To test the thinking before the firm, start with the writing.
45 minutes · with Steve, not a salesperson · no obligation, no follow-up sequence
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