I'm Maff Bowers - an SC-cleared, OSCP- and CREST-certified penetration tester based in Halifax. I give infosec firms scalable surge capacity: already-scoped engagements run end to end, with no permanent headcount and no obligation.
About
The early 2000s found me as a category merchandiser at the Co-op's head office in Manchester, quietly teaching myself to automate the tedious parts of the job with Excel macros and VBA. That instinct - find the brittle thing, take it apart, rebuild it better - turned into a living.
I ran Haven Digital for over a decade, building web and desktop systems and supporting local businesses, and qualified as an OSCP toward the end of it. In 2017 I rebranded to Haven Cybersecurity to test systems rather than build them, and relocated to Halifax in 2021, where I'm still based.
These days the work is mainly web-application and API testing, with network, cloud and AI systems alongside it, and a widening set of specialisms as the work demands.
How I work
When your in-house testers are fully deployed and the engagements keep coming, I'm scalable capacity with no permanent cost or obligation - an extra pair of certified, cleared hands, scoped and ready.
Hand me an already-scoped engagement and I run it start to finish, with no need for oversight.
Clear, eloquent write-ups with every section pitched at the audience that actually has to read it.
I communicate with end-clients directly and well - you can put me in front of them without worry.
Years of engagements mean most problems are already familiar, so issues get handled quickly rather than bounced back to you.
Approach
Off-the-shelf scanners catch the obvious. The findings that matter usually sit where no scanner thinks to look, so when an engagement needs something that doesn't exist yet, I build it, and I run an AI-assisted testing workflow I've engineered myself. That's what keeps the overflow model fast: depth that doesn't wait on a vendor, and the judgement to know when the automated answer is wrong.
Credentials
Notable work
A representative sample from across my career - every one anonymised, no client named, no methodology given away.
Track record
Web, API and network testing, cloud-security consulting, and AWS IAM-compromise simulation.
Authored and narrated a 500+ slide penetration-testing course, with hands-on labs, for a global training provider.
Web and desktop builds and IT support for local businesses, including a report-automation system that cut a financial-advice firm's drafting from hours to seconds. Qualified OSCP, then rebranded to Haven Cybersecurity.
Where the automation habit, and eventually the whole career, started.
Teaching & writing
500+ slides, authored and narrated, with accompanying labs, covering just about every facet of penetration testing. Probably the only cybersecurity course in the world delivered in a Halifax accent.
On the realisation, soon after qualifying, that pentesting isn't really a single profession, and what that means for how you build a career in it.
Read on LinkedInThe company
maff.ai is how you reach me; Haven Cybersecurity Ltd is the company you engage. One tester, the full engagement, under a registered UK company.
Maff works from Halifax, West Yorkshire. The Leeds address is our registered office (our accountant's) only, it's not where the testing happens.
Testing is AI-assisted in places, under direct human supervision throughout, with data redacted before it reaches any AI provider and stricter controls on high-sensitivity work. How AI is used in testing →
Get in touch
Scoped work ready to hand off, or a conversation about recurring overflow capacity, either way, start here.
Book via Haven Cybersecurity