Nicolas Southern
Nicolas Southern

Experience

Application security and IT operations for regulated gaming products, in venues and in the cloud.

Security & Software Engineer, IT Operations Lead at New Market Entertainment / Highland Consulting

2011 – Present·Austin, TX

Related: eTabs, VSweeps.

Application security and testing

  • Threat model critical applications with first-party code bases and third-party contracted vendors, then manually test them (dynamic testing) before release.
  • Penetration test our platforms, web apps, APIs, and gaming terminals, black-box and white-box, and use the findings to harden them.
  • Review our TypeScript, Python, and C#/.NET code for security bugs and fix them before release.
  • Hardened hundreds of gaming terminals and cabinets with signed software updates, locked-down devices, and physical access controls such as cabinet door switches tied into the software.
  • Built Lockhaven, a WireGuard access layer for device enrollment and private admin sessions that keeps internal services off the public internet.
  • Set up Axiom alerting and wrote AI agents that review logs and flag suspicious activity.
  • Work with regulators, operators, and vendors on licensing and new market launches, and support state gaming lab certifications.

Product and operations

  • Led Manatee Bingo, one of our main products (Florida electronic pull-tabs), end to end, and built most of our first-party security work on it: GitHub Actions CI/CD where Semgrep findings block merges, and IaC using Terraform.
  • Full stack engineer for regulated real-money gaming products, from cloud APIs to hundreds of venue gaming terminals.
  • Own production for multi-state deployments: releases, monitoring, and incident response.
  • Field work: networking, terminals and cabinets, imaging, remote troubleshooting. I get venues online.

Education

B.S. Cybersecurity and Information Assurance, Western Governors University, 2026-2027 (expected)

FAA Commercial Pilot License

Associate of Applied Science, Culinary Arts at Texas State Technical College, Waco

2013·Waco, TX
  • AAS in Culinary Arts.

Earlier

Sous Chef at Baylor Club

Aug 2014 – Jun 2015·Waco, TX
  • Opening-team sous chef at McLane Stadium. Private events, suite service, and the alumni dining room during football season.
  • Ran service with a 20–30 person crew in a high-volume club kitchen.

Sous Chef at Hotel Indigo Waco (Baylor)

Apr 2013 – Aug 2014·Waco, TX
  • Hotel kitchen operations, dinner service, and private events.
  • Standardized recipes and kept the line consistent.