← Team

Portrait of Viacheslav Varusha, founder of Underfire Labs
Founder & SEO

Viacheslav Varusha

Fifteen years of engineering.
Half of it spent where security is not optional.

Founder of Underfire Labs and the person who owns its search visibility. Eight years of Objective-C and Swift behind shipped App Store products; six years inside Ukraine's special communication and information protection institutions, including a cryptography division. Since the full-scale invasion, also a leading information security specialist at the Kyiv municipal enterprise that runs the city's video surveillance system and server infrastructure.

Work with us LinkedIn profile
Technical SEO Swift Objective-C Cryptography NIST 800-53 rev5 Core Graphics Kyiv, Ukraine
15 yrsengineering since 2011
8 yrsObjective-C & Swift
6 yrscryptography & infosec
3countries delivered for
Since February 2022

When the invasion came, the specialty came back

▤

Leading information security specialist

Information Security & Cybersecurity Department · Kyiv municipal enterprise

The enterprise operates Kyiv's city-wide video surveillance system and supplies the city with its server infrastructure — the kind of system that stops being an IT asset and becomes civil defence the moment a war starts. Six years of cryptography and technical information protection training, put back to work where the state needed it.

◈

Initiated the move to NIST 800-53 rev5

Proposed and drove the transition of the enterprise's information security programme onto the American NIST SP 800-53 rev5 control framework — replacing checklist compliance with a control catalogue that assumes a determined adversary, maps controls to real threats and makes gaps measurable instead of arguable.

Control catalogue Risk assessment Critical infrastructure
What this means for a project

Three things that rarely sit in one person

◎

Ships whole products, not tickets

Repeatedly the sole owner of an iOS product: architecture, development, payments, third-party integrations and the App Store release. Concept to production, full cycle.

▤

Security is a background, not a checkbox

Cryptography division, state special communications, and now a NIST 800-53 rev5 programme on city infrastructure. Threat models come first, not at the pre-launch review.

↗

Growth built by an engineer

SEO handled by someone who reads the render path, not just the keyword tool: crawlability, Core Web Vitals, structured data and search visibility designed into the build.

Experience

Fifteen years, three countries

Current · wartime service
Organisation
Kyiv municipal enterprise — city video surveillance & server infrastructure
Period
Since 2022
Location
Kyiv, Ukraine

Leading information security specialist

Information Security and Cybersecurity Department. Responsible for the protection of information in systems that carry the city's video surveillance and hosting capacity. Initiated the enterprise's transition to the NIST SP 800-53 rev5 control framework, bringing an internationally recognised control catalogue to critical municipal infrastructure in wartime.

NIST 800-53 rev5Information protectionCybersecurityCritical infrastructure
Current
Company
28software
Period
Feb 2022 — present
Location
Kyiv, Ukraine · hybrid

Senior iOS developer

Supporting long-term legacy projects, implementing new features and modern technology, and working with a client whose product carries substantial ongoing monetisation.

SwiftObjective-CLegacy modernisationMonetisation
Founder
Company
Private entrepreneur
Period
Feb 2018 — Feb 2022
Location
Kyiv, Ukraine

CEO, car rental company

Owned and ran a rental vehicle fleet: built own iOS applications into the operating process, digitalised workflows, kept vehicles serviceable, oversaw restoration and repairs, sourced and purchased transport units, handled law enforcement matters, insurance coverage and tax obligations. Operations ceased due to the war.

Own iOS toolingProcess digitalisationFleet operationsP&L
Graphics · NDA
Company
UNITED CODE, INC.
Period
Dec 2019 — Dec 2020
Location
Texas, USA

iOS engineer

Application development with Core Graphics and hardware integration. Responsible for the whole development process and architecture, multi-layout layers, and data exchange and layout with custom hardware.

Core GraphicsCustom hardwareArchitecture
Product from scratch
Company
Q~Zero
Period
Aug 2018 — Oct 2019
Location
Italy

iOS developer

Developed from scratch and responsible for the whole development process and architecture, including payment integration and third-party chat integration.

GreenfieldPaymentsChat integration
Social apps
Companies
IT-nity · GoBeside
Period
Jan 2018 — Aug 2018
Location
Kyiv Metropolitan Area

iOS engineer

At IT-nity: a social network app with demanding design and animation work. At GoBeside: a Ukrainian social network built from scratch, full cycle from concept to production release, on Objective-C with MapKit and AFNetworking, shipped to the App Store.

Objective-CMapKitAFNetworkingAnimationsApp Store release
Research · state sector
Institution
Institute of Special Communication and Information Protection, KPI
Period
Apr 2015 — Dec 2017
Location
Kyiv

Senior engineer, research centre

Research work at the institute's centre, following four years across Ukraine's state special communication bodies — the Administration of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (department of special information and telecommunication systems, 2013–2015) and the State science-research Institute of Special Communication and Information Protection (cryptography division, 2011–2012).

CryptographyTechnical information protectionTelecom systems
Teaching
Institution
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
Period
Jan 2016 — Dec 2016
Location
Kyiv

Assistant teacher, Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science

Taught the "Algorithmization and programming" discipline for a year.

AlgorithmsTeaching
Off the clock

The rest of the person

Curiosity that does not stay inside the job description — which is usually where the useful ideas come from.

Aircraft, piloting & astronautics

Flying and spaceflight as a serious interest, not a poster on the wall — systems where redundancy, checklists and failure analysis are the whole discipline.

Drones

Hands-on with unmanned platforms. In Ukraine since 2022 this stopped being a hobbyist topic and became common engineering literacy.

AI

Following and building with AI beyond the hype cycle — which is why AI agents are a service line at Underfire Labs rather than a keyword.

Electric vehicles

Four years of running a rental fleet left a permanent interest in how vehicles, software and energy actually meet.

Mnemonics

Deliberate memory technique. Handy when your working set spans a control catalogue, a codebase and a client roadmap at once.

Basketball & DJing

One keeps the team instinct sharp, the other keeps the timing honest. Both are practice, not decoration.

Need this on your project?

iOS work, a security-sensitive product, or search visibility built in from the first commit — start with a scoping call.

Start a project Rest of the team