Front Range OWASP Conference 2013/Speakers/Ziring

Neal Ziring

Mr. Neal Ziring is the Technical Director for the National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate (IAD), serving as a technical advisor to the IAD Director, Deputy Director, and other senior leadership. Mr. Ziring is responsible for setting the technical direction across the Information Assurance mission space. Mr. Ziring tracks technical activities, promotes technical health of the staff, and acts as liaison to various industry, intelligence, academic, and government partners. As part of his role, he guides IAD’s academic outreach program, acting as a technical liaison to several universities that are participants in the National Centers for Academic Excellence - Research (CAD-R) program. His personal expertise areas include router security, IPv6, VM-based secure systems, cloud computing, cross-domain information exchange, and mobile code security. Mr. Ziring received B.S. degrees in computer science and electrical engineering (1985), and an M.S. in computer science (1986), all from Washington University in St. Louis. Since then, he has also taken courses from Columbia University and University of Maryland Baltimore County. Virtually Mr. Ziring’s entire government career has been based in the NSA Information Assurance Directorate. He joined NSA in late 1988, working on software tools and cryptosystem simulation. In the 1990s he began working in IA Evaluations and, except for brief tours, has been there ever since. From 2003 to 2005 he held the position of technical director for the IA Evaluations System and Network Attack Center (SNAC). Between 2006 and 2010 he was detailed to the NSA Mission Systems Development group as the security architect. Mr. Ziring is maintains his Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) certificates. Prior to joining NSA, Mr. Ziring was a member of technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. In addition to work, Neal enjoys martial arts, running, and playing classical guitar. He holds a 3rd degree black belt in Shorinji Kempo.