We help financial sector, government, and critical infrastructure organizations think clearly about systemic risk, continuity, and time-based failure modes in long-lived systems.
Based in Brussels. Founded by Trey Darley. Get in contact.
Why Proper Tools exists
Some infrastructure risks build slowly and fail abruptly. Embedded timing dependencies. Rollover events. Cross-sector systemic coupling. These are the quiet failure modes that don't show up in quarterly dashboards — until it's too late.
Proper Tools exists to make these risks legible before they become crises.
What we do
- Executive & board briefings on systemic infrastructure and rollover risks.
- Fractional advisory — ongoing support for leadership teams navigating continuity risk without adding headcount.
- Standards & policy alignment — FIRST, ITU-T, NIS2, DORA, and related efforts.
- Research partnerships toward a future Proper Tools Observatory.
Typical engagements range from executive briefings to 2–4 days/month of fractional advisory.
Signals we're watching
- 2038-class rollover coordination gaps across standards bodies and regulators.
- Legacy NTP dependencies and unexamined clock assumptions in critical infrastructure.
- NIS2 and DORA reframing timing as a regulated systemic risk.
- Lifecycle mismatch between embedded devices and cyber-policy horizons.