Timothy Copeland

I work with teams who

Run business-critical or long-lived systems
Support regulated environments, including financial and payment systems
Need cryptographic upgrades without breaking compatibility
Are dealing with complex TLS, PKI, or authentication issues
Care more about security than compliance checkboxes

What I do

I design and implement cryptographic systems that are secure by construction and practical to operate in real production environments.

This typically involves:

Modernizing cryptography in legacy systems (including post-quantum)
Designing cryptographic systems such as MFA and key management systems with real threat models
Debugging and extending OpenSSL-based systems

Why teams trust me with critical cryptography

Contributor to the OpenSSL project, with real accepted fixes in CRL processing code
Designed and implemented production cryptographic and authentication systems used in regulated environments
Writer of tlsproxy, a hardened, minimal TLS termination proxy for securing microservices and legacy systems.

How I work

I start from your existing system, not an idealized redesign
I prioritize compatibility, observability, and rollback paths
I deliver working code and clear integration guidance
I document assumptions and trade-offs, not just recommendations

Security first, compliance as a consequence

I work with organizations who need to meet standards such as PCI DSS or ISO 27001, but who understand that secure systems cannot be built by following checklists alone.

My focus is on designing cryptographic and authentication systems that are correct, resilient, and maintainable—so that compliance requirements are satisfied as a consequence of good engineering, not in spite of it.

I have practical experience working in payment and card-processing environments, and understand how cryptographic design decisions affect audit outcomes, operational risk, and incident response.