Mr. Ratliff is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of Information Security experience. He specializes in operating system and network security, penetration testing, and vulnerability risk assessments. He is proficient with a wide variety of system and network security solutions, including routers, switches, system and network firewalls, server and network intrusion detection systems.

Mr. Ratliff began his career in the United States Air Force, where he spent 10 years in the computer operations field. While serving in the Air Force, he traveled to various overseas locations supporting a variety of critical systems in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Prior to joining Network & Security Technologies, Mr. Ratliff worked at Enron Energy and Enron Broadband Services. While at Enron Energy, Mr. Ratliff served as a Senior UNIX security administrator. Mr. Ratliff’s responsibilities included providing security support for multiple datacenters. While with Enron Broadband Services, Mr. Ratliff was the Senior Security Analyst on their Information Systems Security team. This team was responsible for the security of both the corporate network and the customer network which delivered real time multimedia content for their clients. He was also responsible for firewall deployment, OS security, and intrusion detection.

Following Enron, Mr. Ratliff was a Senior Security Analyst at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX. While at Methodist, he improved the security of its operations and assets through internal and external penetration testing, security assessments, and procedure review. This work was critical in ensuring secure operations within the organization and compliancy with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Since joining N&ST, Mr. Ratliff has conducted numerous penetration tests and technical security assessments for major clients in the financial, education and electric power sectors. In addition, Mr. Ratliff has performed high-profile projects related to compliance with the NERC CIP Cyber Security Standards for several large Bulk Electric System participants, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy.

Mr. Ratliff is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and has held certifications from Sun, Cisco, and Netscreen. Mr. Ratliff joined Network & Security Technologies in May 2004, and lives in Marshville, North Carolina with his wife Charlotte and their two children, Colby and Caleb.