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Patricia Abernathy
Information Security Professional committed to protecting our critical infrastructure.
Brooklyn, NY, United States
Details
Experience:
My focus is on OT / ICS / SCADA cybersecurity for NYC’s Water & Wastewater infrastructure. I am responsible for planning, resourcing, and execution of OT-specific cybersecurity activities for the agency.
2023 : Present
NYC Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP)
Information Security Specialist
Key contributor to an IT team at a medium-sized, not-for-profit public Water and Wastewater utility. Duties include : architecting and deploying IT services in accordance with cybersecurity standards and best practices. Designing highly available systems to ensure IT infrastructure and application reliability. Managing IT projects and serving as a technical advisor on projects throughout the organization. Developing and maintaining strategic technical partnerships. Following industry trends and identifying opportunities to leverage new technologies to enhance the organization's ability to achieve its mission. Managing cloud and on-premises IT infrastructure, backup & disaster recovery, and network security solutions. Installing, configuring, and supporting servers, networking equipment, and enterprise applications.
Notable achievements :
- Improved resilience, reliability, and security of two treatment plant control systems by designing and deploying an IT network & system architecture, which included Unified Threat Management firewalls, interior network segmentation, Hyper-V server clusters, security updates, and backups. Resulted in increased organizational preparedness in compliance with The American Water Infrastructure Act and supports the mission of providing safe drinking water to the community.
- Achieved a 50% reduction of local storage footprint by migrating company data to a cloud-tiered architecture using Azure Files and Azure File Sync, resulting in cost savings by delaying the need to invest in additional SAN storage.
- Reduced organization's cybersecurity attack surface by implementing multi-factor authentication, a network IPS/IDS system, and an email security solution. The organization subsequently experienced a significant drop in virus detections and cybersecurity incidents.
2007 : 2023
Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA)
IT Infrastructure Engineer & Network Administrator
Supported IT infrastructure at a fast-growing foster care services agency with 350+ users in 10 branch offices across 3 states. Designed and deployed improvements to network infrastructure. Created backup strategy and disaster recovery plan. Installed and maintained enterprise applications and performed network/system upgrades. Supervised two Technical Support Specialists. Conducted end-user training on company computer systems. Coordinated new branch office technology setups.
Notable contributions :
- Transformed company’s IT systems architecture by moving all server assets from branch offices into a co-located data center connected with site-to-site VPN tunnels to centralize operations and reduce maintenance and support costs.
- Deployed Windows Network Load Balancing with Windows Terminal Server to provide a scalable, highly available user computing platform.
- Designed and deployed Windows Active Directory services to integrate branch offices into one logical network, reducing management effort.
- Installed Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to provide a reliable and valuable company-wide collaboration tool.
- Implemented Windows Group Policy and Windows roaming profiles to automate user account configuration and NTFS security settings.
- Developed protocols and standard operating procedures for IT Service Desk.
2004 : 2007
Youth Development Corporation of America (Carvaka, Inc.)
Network Administrator & Helpdesk Supervisor
Worked as a technical integrator & support specialist for growing start-up company. Responsibilities included testing and troubleshooting product hardware, software, and middleware, and taking customer support phone calls. Worked with developers on software QA and testing. Traveled to customer sites for product installation and training. Supported office servers, computers, printers, and network firewalls.
2000 : 2004
ARCA (ArcaTech Systems)
Technical Support Specialist
2023 : Present
NYC Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP)
Information Security Specialist
Key contributor to an IT team at a medium-sized, not-for-profit public Water and Wastewater utility. Duties include : architecting and deploying IT services in accordance with cybersecurity standards and best practices. Designing highly available systems to ensure IT infrastructure and application reliability. Managing IT projects and serving as a technical advisor on projects throughout the organization. Developing and maintaining strategic technical partnerships. Following industry trends and identifying opportunities to leverage new technologies to enhance the organization's ability to achieve its mission. Managing cloud and on-premises IT infrastructure, backup & disaster recovery, and network security solutions. Installing, configuring, and supporting servers, networking equipment, and enterprise applications.
Notable achievements :
- Improved resilience, reliability, and security of two treatment plant control systems by designing and deploying an IT network & system architecture, which included Unified Threat Management firewalls, interior network segmentation, Hyper-V server clusters, security updates, and backups. Resulted in increased organizational preparedness in compliance with The American Water Infrastructure Act and supports the mission of providing safe drinking water to the community.
- Achieved a 50% reduction of local storage footprint by migrating company data to a cloud-tiered architecture using Azure Files and Azure File Sync, resulting in cost savings by delaying the need to invest in additional SAN storage.
- Reduced organization's cybersecurity attack surface by implementing multi-factor authentication, a network IPS/IDS system, and an email security solution. The organization subsequently experienced a significant drop in virus detections and cybersecurity incidents.
2007 : 2023
Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA)
IT Infrastructure Engineer & Network Administrator
Supported IT infrastructure at a fast-growing foster care services agency with 350+ users in 10 branch offices across 3 states. Designed and deployed improvements to network infrastructure. Created backup strategy and disaster recovery plan. Installed and maintained enterprise applications and performed network/system upgrades. Supervised two Technical Support Specialists. Conducted end-user training on company computer systems. Coordinated new branch office technology setups.
Notable contributions :
- Transformed company’s IT systems architecture by moving all server assets from branch offices into a co-located data center connected with site-to-site VPN tunnels to centralize operations and reduce maintenance and support costs.
- Deployed Windows Network Load Balancing with Windows Terminal Server to provide a scalable, highly available user computing platform.
- Designed and deployed Windows Active Directory services to integrate branch offices into one logical network, reducing management effort.
- Installed Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to provide a reliable and valuable company-wide collaboration tool.
- Implemented Windows Group Policy and Windows roaming profiles to automate user account configuration and NTFS security settings.
- Developed protocols and standard operating procedures for IT Service Desk.
2004 : 2007
Youth Development Corporation of America (Carvaka, Inc.)
Network Administrator & Helpdesk Supervisor
Worked as a technical integrator & support specialist for growing start-up company. Responsibilities included testing and troubleshooting product hardware, software, and middleware, and taking customer support phone calls. Worked with developers on software QA and testing. Traveled to customer sites for product installation and training. Supported office servers, computers, printers, and network firewalls.
2000 : 2004
ARCA (ArcaTech Systems)
Technical Support Specialist
Company:
NYC Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP)
About
Innovative IT professional with extensive technical knowledge and outstanding problem-solving and decision-making skills. Leveraging 20+ years of experience to find creative technology solutions that empower organizations to do their best work. Areas of expertise include:
Cybersecurity | IT Operations & Strategy | Data Center & Cloud Infrastructure | SCADA & ICS |Backup & Disaster Recovery | Network Administration | System Architecture | Project Management
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