Tag: Antonio Brandao

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ELL COMMS PRESS RELEASE: Cybersecurity Leader, Entrepreneur and Author Antonio Brandao of BCNET Headlines Portfolio.YVR Issue #14

VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, July 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine has released its Summer 2026 edition, Volume 4, Issue 14, anchored by a ten-page cover feature on Antonio Brandao, Director of Cybersecurity Services at BCNET, the not-for-profit shared services consortium serving forty-four post-secondary institutions across British Columbia. A former Brazilian Army Lieutenant Colonel and cybersecurity architect, Brandao brings a rare combination of military discipline, advanced SANS and GIAC certifications, and international sport security experience, including roles at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, to his work defending Canadian research and education networks. In July 2026, he received the ISACA Community Leadership Award and launched his book, Unlock the Secrets of the Dark Web, at BSides Vancouver.

“Antonio and his team at BCNET are doing something rare in Canadian higher education: building shared cybersecurity infrastructure that defends forty-four institutions at once, work that keeps classrooms open and research running across British Columbia,” said Helen Siwak, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Portfolio.YVR. “His story shows readers what entrepreneurship looks like inside an institutional mandate, where every threat stopped protects a community that could not defend itself alone.”

The Summer issue continues with Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver, a two-term Vancouver City Councillor and former President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, whose candidacy for Mayor marks a first-of-profession milestone for the magazine. Andrea Jauck of Premier Group Real Estate Marketing details two decades building a boutique luxury real estate practice. Maggi Ho of Forward & Up Counselling and Meo Ho of Level Headed Salon & Wellness bring complementary stories of mental health and community-driven wellness in Vancouver. Wanting Qu of Wanting Music, the Chinese Canadian singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum album Everything in the World, shares a personal account of resilience and reinvention. Jan van Vianen of van V Media continues the feature lineup with a story of queer-owned content creation built on more than a decade of editorial production. Kean Tan of NEXUSV Inc. closes out the issue with two decades of SMS marketing innovation through the MODISclub platform.

“We champion British Columbia founders internationally because as a founder, you should never limit where your next investor, partner, or opportunity should come from,” Siwak added. “Every story we publish becomes part of a permanent, searchable, shareable record, discoverable by search engines, surfaced by AI tools, and read by audiences we may never meet ourselves.”

The issue also includes two QuickTake updates: Vancouver author Jess Singh, first featured in December 2025, returns with news of her first Canadian book festival appearance at Toronto’s Word on the Street, and Drew Munro shares the launch of Demi, a food technology platform built to help prepared food operators manage costs and scale sustainably.

ABOUT PORTFOLIO.YVR BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURS MAGAZINE

Portfolio.YVR remains advertising free, built on a three-part Personal Bio, Business Bio, and interview format that allows each subject to tell a story in their own voice rather than through a traditional business profile. That editorial model is paired with a full-service, post-publishing distribution strategy, including curated newsletters, social media amplification, replica site placements, digital repurposing, and paid international press releases, extending every feature well beyond the digital newsstand. That combination is why founders and entrepreneurs across British Columbia continue to choose Portfolio.YVR for full-service marketing support alongside their business profile.

ABOUT ECOLUXLUV COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING INC.

EcoLuxLuv Communications & Marketing Inc. is a Vancouver-based independent media and publishing company founded by Helen Siwak. The firm specializes in editorial development, brand storytelling, media brokering, digital distribution strategy, and hybrid digital magazine production. Through its flagship titles, Folio.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine and Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, ELL Comms delivers narrative-driven content to engaged audiences across Canada and international markets, surpassing five million combined reads in 2025.

ELL Comms operates a media brokering division connecting brands and publishers with strategic placement opportunities across print and digital platforms, including a national content partnership with Retail-Insider.com. Both flagship titles licence content to news agencies in Korea and Asia, extending their reach across international markets while maintaining a refined West Coast editorial voice.

The company is committed to elevating independent publishers and entrepreneurs, building long-term media partnerships, and democratizing access to professional publishing infrastructure across Canada and beyond.

Portfolio.YVR Vol. 4, Issue 14 is available now on portfolioyvr.com, with the Flip by Issue feature offering full digital access to every profile.

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ELL COMMS PRESS RELEASE: Vancouver Cybersecurity Leader Antonio Brandao Receives 2026 ISACA Community Leadership Award

[Originally published on EIN Presswire on July 22, 2026]

antonio brandao, isaca, cybersecurity, press release, helen siwak, vancouver, bc
Antonio Brandao | Kuna Photography

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, July 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Antonio Brandao, Director of Cybersecurity Services at BCNET, has been named a recipient of the 2026 ISACA Community Leadership Award. The award, presented through the ISACA Vancouver Chapter, of which Brandao is a member, recognizes sustained, high-impact contributions to the professional cybersecurity community.

The recognition reflects years of sustained engagement with the ISACA Vancouver Chapter, including volunteer education, mentorship, and knowledge sharing across British Columbia’s higher education and security communities. It arrives following his recent promotion into the role at BCNET, and alongside his advisory position with Operation: Defend the North Vancouver 2026, a national cybersecurity exercise scheduled for October 2026.

At BCNET, a not-for-profit shared services consortium serving 44 post-secondary member institutions across British Columbia, Brandao strengthens cybersecurity readiness across the province’s post-secondary and research sector, supporting institutions, professionals, students, and researchers who face increasing cyber risk with constrained resources.

Brandao’s leadership extends well beyond his official job title. He has spoken at events including BCNET CONNECT, BSides Vancouver, the TRU Privacy and Security Conference, VanTUG, siberX, and ISACA Vancouver, addressing practical topics such as the dark web, threat intelligence, attacker behaviour, and red-team activity in higher education. His dark web presentations, in particular, translate a complex and often sensationalized subject into a genuinely practical one, helping audiences understand how stolen credentials are traded.

As a mentor in the ISACA Vancouver Mentorship Program, Brandao supports professionals building careers in cybersecurity, governance, risk, and assurance, drawing on his own experience as an immigrant from Brazil to support newcomers entering the field. He has also advised start-ups, including Cyber Armour, and organized hands-on learning opportunities such as the BCNET CONNECT Capture-the-Flag competitions.

His credibility is grounded in a distinctive and hard-earned personal background. A former Brazilian Army Lieutenant Colonel who once coordinated operations for 1,500 personnel, Brandao spent seven years as a cybersecurity professor at Brazil’s Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras before progressing internally at BCNET from SIEM Systems Administrator to Cybersecurity Architect to his current role.

Antonio represents community leadership in the fullest sense, the nomination for the award noted, citing his work strengthening cybersecurity, mentoring professionals, supporting newcomers, helping start-ups, and making cybersecurity knowledge more accessible and actionable.

The award adds to a year of significant milestones for Brandao, who also advises the Operation: Defend the North Vancouver 2026 organizing committee ahead of its October exercise, further extending his community education efforts into a wider public audience.

About Antonio Brandao

Brandao is Director of Cybersecurity Services at BCNET, based in Vancouver. Brandao’s career spans System Network and Security Administrator at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and internal progression at BCNET from SIEM Systems Administrator to Cybersecurity Architect to his current role.

Brandao holds a Bachelor of Military Science and a Master of Military Science from institutions in Brazil, plus a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from Universidade Católica de Santos and honours diplomas from Seneca Polytechnic. Brandao’s certifications include CISSP, GCDA, and GWAPT, alongside SANS coursework in incident response and threat hunting.

Brandao served as Results and IT Manager for Modern Pentathlon at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and volunteered at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games. Brandao currently advises Operation: Defend the North Vancouver 2026 and recently published Unlock the Secrets of the Dark Web: Theoretical Instruction and Hands-On Labs, available in Kindle and paperback editions.

About ISACA

ISACA is a global community of information systems and information technology professionals working to advance digital trust for individuals, enterprises, and society. For more than 50 years, ISACA has served the professional IS/IT community, leading the industry in career-advancing credentials such as CISA and CISM, while bringing expertise to enterprises through its globally recognized COBIT framework.

ISACA serves more than 195,000 members across 230 chapters in 190 countries, connecting professionals to peers, mentorship, job opportunities, and volunteer roles within their own local communities, including the ISACA Vancouver Chapter. The organization is dedicated to guiding and educating the global IS/IT community and governments on the positive potential of technology while guarding against its risks, supported by the non-profit ISACA Foundation, which works to build equity and diversity within the technology field.