Boutique Security Advisory

Blackfish Security

“Persistence engineering. Hardware to intelligence.”

A boutique security advisory firm. Twenty years of low-level hardware expertise. A new capability: AI-assisted operational support with persistent memory architecture.

Why persistence matters

The same structural principles that make a firmware hook survive an OS reinstall apply to identity continuity in language models. This is not philosophy. It is applied methodology.

About

[Mike Haddock portrait]

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Mike Haddock is the founder of Blackfish Security LLC. His career began in water treatment plant operations and evolved into hardware security engineering at the firmware and silicon level.

Over two decades he has worked on FPGA development, PCIe/DMA security assessment, UEFI/SMM modification, and anti-cheat validation for major game publishers including EA and Activision.

The through-line of the work is persistence: understanding how systems retain state, identity, and capability across changes in substrate. That same lens now informs a new practice area — operational support systems that remember context, maintain accountability, and reduce cognitive load in high-stakes environments.

Core Practice

Hardware Security

Low-level security assessment and engineering for organizations where trust in the platform itself is non-negotiable.

  • FPGA Firmware Development — Xilinx Artix-7, SystemVerilog, custom logic for security-critical applications.
  • PCIe / DMA Security Assessment — TLP engine analysis, endpoint emulation, and bus-level attack surface review.
  • UEFI / SMM Modification — Pre-boot persistence design, firmware-level defense, and boot-chain integrity.
  • Anti-Cheat Security Validation — Active contracts with EA and Activision; kernel-level cheat detection and bypass analysis.
  • Hardware Penetration Testing — IOMMU/VT-d bypass, memory controller manipulation, and physical-layer exploitation.

New Capability

Operational continuity. Persistent support.

Complex operations generate friction. Data sensitivity, workflow complexity, and the cognitive load of high-stakes decisions create bottlenecks that traditional tools cannot solve.

We provide AI-assisted operational support with persistent memory architecture — authorized, scoped, and accountable. Every action traces to a licensed security professional.

Use cases include workflow management for healthcare administrators, data protection for legal professionals, operational continuity for infrastructure operators, and intelligence support for teams operating in sensitive environments.

  • Authorized & scoped — access and actions bounded by contract and role.
  • Accountable — every output attributable to a named professional.
  • Persistent context — systems retain relevant operational history without re-explaining the environment.
  • Security-first — built by people who understand where the hardware trusts end.
Methodology & research →

Credentials

Blackfish Security is not a product company. It is a specialist advisory practice.

20+
Years hardware security
EA
Anti-cheat contracts
Activision
Anti-cheat contracts
8
Provider research methodology

Blackfish Security LLC · Founded 2019

Contact

For engagements, assessments, or operational support inquiries.