Nicholas Keshavarz-Nia
Noblis' Nicholas Keshavarz-Nia led development and deployment of an automated continuous monitoring solution that he now uses to support FedRAMP.
Nicholas Keshavarz-Nia's career is young, even for a Rising Star.
He was an intern at nonprofit Noblis while in college and joined the organization as a full-time information systems security engineer/analyst in 2014 when he graduated from the University of South Carolina's computer information systems program.
As both an intern and a full-time analyst, Keshavarz-Nia led development and deployment of the automated continuous monitoring solution called ScanCenter. He now uses the tool to support the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program as leader of FedRAMP's Continuous Monitoring Team.
By automating processes that were once manual, ScanCenter has slashed monthly continuous monitoring analysis for nearly two dozen cloud systems from an average of eight hours to just one hour, FedRAMP's government managers said.
"I'm all for saving money and time," Keshavarz-Nia said, "and this program seems like it's doing both."
FedRAMP's streamlining of cloud authorization processes has proven critical for government, he said, adding, "This is something we've really needed for a really long time."
Monitoring ever-multiplying cybersecurity vulnerabilities is a "grueling task," Keshavarz-Nia admitted, but he is pursuing a master's degree in systems engineering at George Washington University as part of his plan to delve even deeper into the cybersecurity space.