Risk Strategy

Intelligence

Cygnus is a leading independent provider of risk advisory services, focusing on strategy and scenario forecasting.

We support our clients’ strategic risk decision-making, with core expertise in Security, Cybersecurity, and Social Risk.

Who We Help

We support a diverse range of companies, governments and individuals with strategic and operational risk needs.

Chief Risk and Security Officers, CISOs

Risk governance, policy, and implementation. Critical intelligence to support risk strategy.

General Counsel

Nonpartisan investigations following serious incidents or in response to whistleblower allegations.

Strategy, M&A and Business Development

Essential intelligence to support market entry and other strategic decisions.

Parties involved in litigation

We have represented governments in international arbitration, and civil litigants in the High Court of Justice.

Our Services

Forecasting

We cut through the high-volatility content of open-source media to produce forecasts that are politically neutral, and objective.

We are not afraid to take an out-of-consensus view when the evidence supports it.

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Risk Strategy

Our clients face an array of security, political and social risks to business viability in developed, emerging and frontier markets.

We help our clients beat the risks.

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Cyber Security

Technically grounded, adversary-focused cybersecurity services designed to uncover real risks — not just theoretical ones.

Our goal is simple: identify and fix vulnerabilities before they are exploited.

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Social Risk

We are experts in identifying and reducing the risk of conflict between companies and communities.

The first step in conflict prevention is to eliminate company-prompted incentives for local groups to behave violently and to create mechanisms to address disagreements constructively, respectfully, and transparently.

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Security Risk Management

We help organisations see their risks and embed good risk management in day-to-day operations.

We deploy leading technology to embed the ‘hardware’ – the rules, the policies - and the ‘software’ – the culture and behaviours - that are the foundation of resilience.

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Litigation Support & Contentious Issues

We arm litigators with the facts they need to build a winning case.

As accredited expert witnesses, we provide clearly explained, objective and unbiased opinion based on a complete reading of the evidence.

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Our Track Record

Our time-tested expertise in intelligence and risk strategy enables our clients to see around corners.

Here are some of our favourite outcomes in recent years.

Feb 2025

Investigation pending litigation

A fatal security incident raised serious questions about our client’s security contractor. On behalf of General Counsel, our investigation revealed flaws in contracts, potential breaches of contract by the contractor, and other evidence of professional negligence.

Dec 2024

Market entry

We made a positive call on market entry for a mining client in Balochistan. Despite endemic and growing insurgency threats, we supported market entry based on strong intelligence and our direct experience of resilient mitigation planning in Balochistan and similar places.

Jul 2023

Success in civil litigation – expert witness

The successful defence in this hard-to-win case is an instructive example of how fraud may be proved by the careful accumulation of factual and expert evidence when, as is so often the case, there is no ‘smoking gun’. Lawrence & Keyguard v Cowell and Ors [2023] EWHC 2644 (Ch).

Aug 2022

Security strategy

Our client was exposed to a diverse array of security threats in Africa and LatAm. On behalf of the newly appointed Global Head of Security, we wrote new company policy, minimum standards and guidelines, and provided implementation support and training to the country-level teams.

View our full track record