Security architecture and compliance for regulated environments.
Twenty-seven years building and operating the infrastructure that auditors inspect — not just documenting it.
The independent practice of Wade Blackwell, CCIE Security. Based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Read the control. Build what satisfies it.
Most GRC consultants can read a control and write a finding. Fewer can design the network segmentation, the identity architecture, or the cloud landing zone that actually satisfies it — and then stand behind the design in front of an auditor.
This practice does both.
Services
Compliance architecture and audit readiness
Gap assessments, remediation roadmaps, POA&M leadership, and evidence packages that survive review.
For healthcare payers, CMS contractors, and cloud vendors pursuing federal authorization.
OT and industrial security for manufacturing
Segmentation across IT and OT boundaries, SEMI E187 readiness, IEC 62443 alignment, and protection programs for export-controlled technical data.
For semiconductor, aerospace, and defense-supply-chain manufacturers.
Fractional security leadership
A part-time CISO on retainer: program and policy, board and executive risk reporting, vendor risk, and incident response readiness.
For organizations that need security leadership but cannot justify a full-time executive.
Credentials
- Certification
- CCIE Security
- Experience
- 27+ years in network engineering, security architecture, and cloud
- Frameworks
- NIST 800-53, CMS ARS, FedRAMP, FIPS, DISA STIGs, CMMC / NIST 800-171
- Cloud
- AWS and Azure architecture in regulated and FedRAMP-aligned environments
- Location
- Based in Phoenix, Arizona. Remote nationally, on-site regionally.
Selected work
Independent builds, written up as methods.
Automating DISA STIG checks for Cisco ISE through a scanner with no ISE support
The 81 rules of the Cisco ISE NDM and NAC STIGs (V2R4): 24 checked automatically over SSH and a read-only API, 7 in part, and 50 kept visible as manual items, never counted as a pass.
An insider-threat audit of self-hosted infrastructure, and the fixes it drove
A read-only audit that assumed a compromised insider, found 51 verified issues, and traced how one foothold reached the keys. The fixes broke that chain first.
Using public AI models on sensitive material without disclosing the values
An offline Windows desktop tool that swaps identifiers in PHI, PII, card data, CUI and secrets for consistent tokens, puts every detection in front of a person, and restores real values in the model's reply.
How engagements work
Scoping call
Free, 45 minutes.
Assessment
Fixed-fee, time-boxed.
Roadmap
Yours to keep.
Execution or advisory
Hourly, project, or monthly retainer.
Start with a scoping call
Free, 45 minutes: what is driving the deadline, what is already in place, and what the real constraint is.