We're delighted to announce that Simon Reed, former Chief Security Officer at Sophos, has joined Overe as Strategic Advisor.
Simon brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity experience across security research, product, engineering and strategy.
As Chief Security Officer at Sophos, he established and led Sophos X-Ops, bringing together more than 1,100 experts across threat intelligence, incident response, managed detection, offensive security and enterprise security.
His career also includes senior executive roles at McAfee and several venture-backed technology companies. Simon is currently Distinguished Security Fellow at Sophos, advising its executive leadership on cybersecurity strategy, AI, emerging threats and long-term technology direction.
Simon joins Overe at a point when the cybersecurity landscape is changing rapidly.
AI is making attacks faster, more scalable and accessible to a much wider group of attackers. At the same time, businesses are becoming increasingly dependent on cloud applications, identities and interconnected services.
Prevention remains essential, but on its own it is no longer enough. Organisations also need to understand where they are exposed, recognise when something changes and respond before isolated activity becomes a serious incident.
For SMB and mid-market organisations, that challenge is particularly difficult. They face many of the same threats as large enterprises, but without the same specialist teams, budgets or security infrastructure.
Microsoft 365 is a clear example. It includes extensive built-in security capabilities, but the combination of licensing, identity, Conditional Access, applications and constantly changing configurations has created enormous complexity.
Configured does not mean enforced. A tenant can appear correctly configured while still containing users, devices or authentication paths that leave the organisation exposed.
Overe is building a more practical answer to that problem.
Overe is a Microsoft 365 security operations platform. It helps MSPs and security teams assess, harden, monitor and respond across Microsoft 365, continuously validating that security controls are actually enforced rather than simply configured. It identifies configuration gaps, identity risks and authentication paths where controls are not being applied, then guides teams through the actions needed to reduce exposure.
The goal is to make strong security outcomes achievable without requiring every organisation to employ a large team of Microsoft security specialists.
Simon has been an investor and supporter of Overe for some time, giving him a close understanding of our technology, strategy and the market opportunity.
As Strategic Advisor, he'll work with the Overe leadership team across security strategy, product direction, go-to-market and selected industry relationships.
Overe CEO and Co-Founder Paul Barnes said:
"This is a big step for Overe. Simon has operated at the highest levels of cybersecurity, building and leading teams responsible for protecting organisations around the world.
What has always stood out to me is how practical and approachable he is. He understands the technology, but he also understands the market, the customer and what it takes to build a successful security company.
Simon already knows Overe extremely well as an investor and supporter. Formalising that relationship gives our team access to an incredible level of experience as we grow, and I couldn't be happier to have him working alongside us."
Simon Reed said:
"We're entering a period where resilience matters just as much as prevention. AI is changing the speed and scale of attacks, while the systems businesses depend on are becoming more interconnected and complex.
Smaller organisations face many of the same threats as large enterprises, but they don't have the same security resources. Overe has an opportunity to close that gap by making sophisticated Microsoft 365 security accessible and easier to deploy and operate, substantially improving their cyber resilience.
I've followed the company closely as an investor and supporter, and I'm looking forward to working more closely with Paul and the team as they develop the strategy and scale the business."
Simon's appointment becomes effective on 1 October 2026.
Overe is a Microsoft 365 security operations platform built for MSPs and the organisations they support. Across four pillars, Assess, Harden, Monitor and Respond, Overe continuously validates that Microsoft 365 security controls are enforced, surfaces drift as it happens, and gives operators evidence they can act on. Learn more at overe.io.