Brief Summary

I have over 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, most of which has been spent in networking/telecoms in the UK/EMEA and NZ/APAC.  I have worked in varied roles such as technical consulting, network design and architecture, pre-sales support, operational support and software engineering.  I moved to New Zealand in 2008, where I worked in several roles before returning to the UK in 2022.

My experience has been gained in a wide range of organisations, from start-ups, through enterprises and to large service providers and telcos.  I have worked in both team environments and on an individual and independent basis.  In recent years, I have also done a lot of my work in the public sector.

Though performing hands-on work is not as regular as it used to be, it has been a strong element in my previous work, when I gained satisfaction from performing proof-of-concepts before deploying to production environments.  I first started working with Cisco in 1994, and with Juniper in 1999.

I very much enjoy customer-facing roles since no two customers are alike, and so the variety this gives is always a challenge that I am keen to take on.  Taking part in technical discussions with customers forms a key part of being able to fully understand their requirements, which is essential to being able to deliver a successful solution.

Latest News and Useful Articles                — Updated: 9 June 2026 —

• NSO Group still targeting WhatsApp users.  [Engadget]  [The Register]

• Cisco Live US 2026.  [Packet Pushers]

• USB-connected speakers can infect PCs without physical contact.  [Ars Technica]

• Bot traffic overtakes human traffic for the first time.  [ExtremeTech]

• AI worm.  [Schneier]  [CleverHans Lab]

• Chinese LinkedIn connection requests.  [The Register]  [Graham Cluley]

• Using netlab to argue with a vendor TAC.  [ipSpace]

• Mobile operators: please don't repeat 5G mistakes with 6G.  [The Register]

• AI used to decrypt medieval ciphers.  [Schneier]

• Vulnerability disclosure in the age of AI.  [Schneier]  [Cyber Defense Review PDF]

• Building the tools I wished I had.  [ipSpace]  [RouterJockey]

• SR-MPLS over unnumbered interfaces.  [ipSpace]

• How to search in the era of AI.  [ExtremeTech]

• DNS delegation.  [Geoff Huston]

A more comprehensive news/article list can be found on my networks sub-domain here.

Click here for the latest full version of my CV, or find me on LinkedIn and X / Twitter.

rob (at) larsenconsulting (dot) net

© Robert Larsen.  All rights reserved.