Nic Ziccardi, Senior Security Consultant

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Mr. Ziccardi is a seasoned IT professional with nearly a decade of Risk Management and Information Security experience. He specializes in system stability, compliance, operating system and network security, and risk based vulnerability assessments. Mr. Ziccardi is well versed in a number of risk assessment and risk management practices, and uses this expertise to help clients achieve their governance, risk and compliance goals. Mr. Ziccardi has helped clients of all sizes leverage existing practices and programs to not only satisfy the objectives of NERC CIP, but to incorporate these practices in regular management and operational activities. With Mr.Ziccardi’s assistance, his clients have experienced success during NERC CIPspot checks and audits, as well as through NERC’s Technical Feasibility Exceptions (TFE) process.

Prior to joining N&ST, Mr. Ziccardi spent four years with American Electric Power (AEP). While at AEP, Mr. Ziccardi served as an Information Security Analyst where he developed and implemented AEP’s vulnerability management program. Mr. Ziccardi also planned and led vulnerability and security assessments at a number of assets including power plants, control centers, and natural gas pipelines. Mr. Ziccardi wrapped up his tenure with AEP as a Senior Compliance Analyst focusing on compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley,NERC Urgent Action SAR 1200, and the Maritime Transportation Security Act(MTSA) of 2002. Mr. Ziccardi also served on AEP’s drafting team for NERC CIP002 through CIP 009.

Following AEP, Mr. Ziccardi held a variety of positions with Cardinal Health. While there, he helped develop the foundations of Cardinal’s Risk Management and Compliance team. He improved its security by providing risk assessments to enterprise IT projects. Mr. Ziccardi also served as Cardinal’s Risk Management Strategy Consultant where he helped executives formulate and communicate the concepts of risk as they applied to Cardinal Health and its shared services organizations. The thought leadership provided by Mr. Ziccardi allowed Cardinal Health to adapt its strategies to address a changing business and risk environment. Mr. Ziccardi concluded his tenure at Cardinal Health as the Manager of Proactive and Preventative Maintenance. His team assessed the stability of business critical applications and operated Cardinal’s root cause analysis process. The efforts of his team provided insights that lead to improved technology refresh prioritization, a manageable application retirement strategy, and formation of formal incident response management team.

Mr. Ziccardi has held certifications from Microsoft, Novell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq Computer Corporation, and IBM.

NEWS & EVENTS

March 2012 Customer Testimonial
"N&ST never sat around waiting for us to tell them what to do and came to us when they had questions, but never overburdened us. We are looking forward to working with them again in the future!" - Responsible Entity in the ERCOT region

February 2012 Customer Testimonial

"I have never seen our technical staff actually ask for the same consultants again and again!" - Responsible Entity in the SPP region

January 2012 Customer Testimonial
"Anyone can come in and point to where the problem is, but N&ST was part of the team and worked just like we did. They were working consultants which is exactly what a small to medium size utility needs." - Responsible Entity in the SERC region

4/19/2012 - FERC approves Version 4 of the NERC CIP Standards
As many of you are aware, CIP Version 4 was on this morning’s agenda at FERC’s public meeting. This morning, FERC approved agenda item E-6 without comment. For your information, HERE is the item from FERC’s meeting summary.