Ciarán Cotter — CEO

Hi! I’m Ciarán. I’m 24, and I’m from Cork, Ireland. At the moment, I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I run Starstrike, an AI security consulting company. In April 2025, I won Most Valuable Hacker (MVH) and Most Creative Report at Google's Tokyo LHE, and in October 2025, I won 2nd Place and Best AI VRP Researcher at Google's Mexico City LHE, both times hacking on Google's flagship AI products. I'm a member of the Bugcrowd Hacker Advisory Board and the Critical Thinking Research Lab. I'm also a member of BASI Team Six (BT6), the industry's most elite AI security collective. Previously, I worked as an Offensive Security Engineer at AppOmni, a Series C startup that specialises in SaaS security and SaaS Security Posture Management. I was part of AO Labs, the most prolific research team in the SSPM space. I have extensive experience threat-modelling web applications and leading research projects, balancing the priorities of multiple teams to deliver actionable research to developers. I'm somewhat involved in the CTF scene - I've competed in the European Cybersecurity Challenge four times as part of Team Ireland and I assist in developing CTF challenges for the Irish CTF scene. I also run a short weekly cybersecurity newsletter called MonkeHacks, curating resources and writing about my ideas and research to over a thousand people each week. I'm fluent in English, Japanese and Irish, and learning Arabic and German.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Cybersecurity expert with a focus on AI security and ethical hacking.

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Experience: 4 yrs 7 mos