Mert is a cybersecurity executive, threat intelligence leader, researcher, and speaker with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations understand, anticipate, and respond to evolving cyber threats.
As Vice President of Security Research & Operations at SOCRadar® Extended Threat Intelligence, he leads the Threat Research, Security Operations, and Customer Support organizations. Together with his team, they deliver cyber threat intelligence, digital risk protection, threat monitoring, takedown operations, and customer-facing security services. He also works closely with executive leadership on strategic initiatives and the adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the company’s products and operations.
Throughout his career, Mert has built and led cyber defense capabilities at some of the largest financial institutions in Turkey, including Intertech (DenizBank / Emirates NBD), Akbank, and IBTech (QNB Finansbank). His experience spans cyber threat intelligence, threat research, malware analysis, vulnerability management, incident response, security engineering, security architecture, and security leadership.
Although his current role is primarily executive, he remains actively involved in technical research. He regularly analyzes threat actors, malware, phishing campaigns, adversary infrastructure, and emerging attack techniques, publishing research to help organizations better understand today’s threat landscape. His current focus includes the application of Artificial Intelligence to threat research and security operations.
Knowledge sharing has been a defining part of his career. Since 2011, he has spoken at more than 30 cybersecurity conferences and has been invited to over 40 universities as a guest speaker. Between 2014 and 2016, he taught Malware Analysis in the Cyber Security Graduate Program at Bahçeşehir University.
His cybersecurity journey began while he was still a university student after responsibly disclosing a security vulnerability to Yeditepe University. He later received an achievement grant and joined the university as an Ethical Hacker, laying the foundation for a career dedicated to advancing cyber threat intelligence and strengthening cyber resilience.
For more information about his professional background, visit his LinkedIn profile.