# Benjamin Harris

> Benjamin Harris is the British founder and CEO of watchTowr, a Singapore-founded cybersecurity company that continuously maps and tests organizations from an attacker's perspective. After being expelled from school for hacking its network, he entered professional security consulting within weeks, moved to Singapore at 20, led offensive-security teams, and launched watchTowr in 2021. The company has raised about $29.25 million, while Harris was named to Forbes' 2022 30 Under 30 Asia list and has become a public advocate for replacing periodic security checks with continuous, exploitability-led defense.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at watchTowr
- **Organizations:** watchTowr, CREST, Association of Information Security Professionals, F-Secure Corporation, MWR InfoSecurity, Portcullis Computer Security
- **Nationality:** British
- **Known for:** Founded watchTowr in 2021 and raised approximately $29.25 million across seed, pre-Series A and Series A rounds., Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in the Enterprise Technology category in 2022., Built and led offensive-security teams across the United Kingdom and Singapore before founding watchTowr.

## Career timeline

- **2011** — Joined Portcullis Computer Security as a security consultant shortly after leaving school.
- **2013** — Joined MWR InfoSecurity as a senior security consultant and later became managing security consultant and technical director.
- **2014** — Moved from the United Kingdom to Singapore at age 20 to help build offensive-security operations in Asia.
- **2016-2024** — Served as a CREST assessor; also held Asia advisory-board positions for the penetration-testing discipline.
- **2018-2022** — Served as a co-opted executive committee member at the Association of Information Security Professionals in Singapore.
- **2019-2021** — Worked as technical director at F-Secure Corporation after its acquisition of MWR InfoSecurity.
- **2021** — Founded watchTowr in Singapore; the company emerged from stealth in February 2022.
- **2022** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in Enterprise Technology; watchTowr raised $2.25 million seed and $8 million pre-Series A funding rounds.
- **2024** — watchTowr raised a $19 million Series A led by Peak XV Partners, with repeat participation from Prosus Ventures and Cercano.
- **2025** — Relocated to New York to focus on watchTowr's US growth and appeared on NYSE TV.
- **2026** — Continued publishing on rapidly compressed, AI-driven exploitation timelines and watchTowr's mitigation approach.

## Achievements

- Founded watchTowr in 2021 and raised approximately $29.25 million across seed, pre-Series A and Series A rounds.
- Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in the Enterprise Technology category in 2022.
- Built and led offensive-security teams across the United Kingdom and Singapore before founding watchTowr.
- Served as a CREST assessor and on CREST Asia advisory boards for penetration testing.
- Co-authored watchTowr Labs research into the expired .MOBI registry domain and certificate-verification risks.
- Expanded watchTowr from Singapore into the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Amplified watchTowr's account of Project Red reproducing a WordPress remote-code-execution flaw in 22 minutes and Active Defense producing mitigations 11 minutes later.
- **2026-07** — Shared watchTowr Labs research on a new CitrixBleed iteration, CVE-2026-8451, discovered during rapid reaction to an earlier related flaw.
- **2026-06** — Featured in a founder interview about his one-way move to Singapore, early fundraising in Southeast Asia, and preference for speed and clarity over more data.
- **2026-04** — Published an essay arguing that four-hour, AI-driven exploitation timelines require rapid exposure validation and temporary network-layer mitigation alongside patching.
- **2025-10** — Discussed resilience, edge-device risk, vendor transparency and proactive detection on CyberScoop's Safe Mode.
- **2025-08** — Appeared on NYSE TV to discuss faster in-the-wild exploitation and watchTowr's preemptive exposure-management model.
- **2025-03** — Relocated from Singapore to New York to focus on watchTowr's US growth.

## Links

- Website: https://watchtowr.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-harris-sg
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/benwatchtowr
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPeQePsZqA

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/benjamin-harris
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-28