Matthew McManus
Co-Founder, CTO & CISO · Unified ITMatthew McManus is an infrastructure architect who puts security first. His work spans industrial cybersecurity, public sector networks and enterprise network design, and his certifications include CISSP, GICSP and GRID.
- CISSP (ISC2)
- GICSP (GIAC)
- GIAC Response and Industrial Defense (GRID)
- CASP+ / SecurityX
- CySA+
- PenTest+
- Security+
- Network+
- CSIS – Secure Infrastructure Specialist
- CIOS – IT Operations Specialist
- Aruba Certified Mobility Associate (ACMA)
- Azure Administrator (AZ-104)
- Microsoft Certified Professional (Installing Windows 10)
- MTA: Networking Fundamentals
- MTA: Security Fundamentals
- MTA: Operating System Fundamentals
- MTA: Mobile Devices Fundamentals
- A+
- IT Fundamentals (ITF+ – Beta)
Matthew's story
Matthew's background is infrastructure engineering and security leadership in critical public systems, where downtime and security failures have real consequences. He started in network operations, automation and infrastructure monitoring.
His work moved on to designing and protecting industrial control systems, municipal infrastructure and multi-site public networks. He has led core routing and switching upgrades, implemented high-availability architectures, integrated BGP and resilient WAN designs, and strengthened SCADA and ICS security programs to align with federal compliance frameworks. The aim throughout has been infrastructure that stays stable under pressure.
He favors segmentation-first design, defense in depth and practical governance aligned with standards such as NIST. Rather than layering security onto existing complexity, he simplifies first, which leaves a network less fragile and easier to see into, audit and maintain.
As Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at Unified IT, Matthew owns both infrastructure strategy and cybersecurity oversight. In his view, a well-engineered system serves the organization that runs it and never locks it into complexity it does not need.
Effective security is a function of architecture, not appliance count. That means defense in depth: segmentation, access control and monitoring layered across the infrastructure stack instead of reliance on the perimeter. Visibility is a first-class requirement, because you cannot defend a network you cannot see into. Vendor independence is a deliberate design constraint, so operational requirements drive infrastructure decisions instead of licensing structures. Segmentation-first design keeps the compromise of one system from cascading into a broader incident.
Humility · Excellence · Innovation