Based in the New York office, Jud Welle is a Managing Director, Head of Nardello & Co.’s Digital Investigations & Cyber Defense practice, and Chief Counsel, Cybersecurity & Privacy. Jud manages and leads engagements involving cyber incident response, insider threats, digital forensics, cybersecurity advisory services, and executive and organizational preparedness.

Prior to joining Nardello & Co., Jud was a Managing Director with Stroz Friedberg, a specialized risk management firm. At Stroz Friedberg, Jud supervised incident response, proactive cybersecurity services, complex digital forensics, due diligence, and eDiscovery matters.

Previously, Jud served as an Assistant US Attorney for the District of New Jersey in Newark. During his 12-year tenure as a federal prosecutor, he investigated and prosecuted federal crimes, including computer hacking, fraud, intellectual property theft, money laundering, terrorism, export-control violations, public corruption, and international narcotics trafficking. He also served in the roles of Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Coordinator and National Security Cyber Specialist, where he led the Office’s efforts to combat computer hacking and data theft by nation states, criminal networks, and insider threats. Jud also served as a fellow with the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a multi-agency cyber center led by the FBI and comprised of over 20 partnering agencies from across law enforcement, the intelligence community, and the Department of Defense.

Jud previously worked as an associate in the litigation department of Dewey Ballantine LLP in New York City. Prior to that, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable John W. Bissell, Chief District Judge of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Jud holds a JD from William & Mary Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, and a BA in political science and psychology from Rutgers University.

Representative matters in Jud’s private sector experience:

• Supervised multiple investigations involving ransomware, business email compromise, and inadvertent data exposure for a range of organizations.
• Supervised investigation into a corporate network intrusion and exfiltration of millions of customer records from an enterprise services company.
• Supervised insider threat investigation involving sabotage of virtual servers perpetrated by disgruntled IT administrator at a technology start-up.
• Supervised insider threat investigation involving unauthorized cryptocurrency “mining” activity on corporate network by a software engineer for publicly traded media company.
• Advised board of directors of a major U.S. bank about communications security and supervised implementation of a platform to protect its sensitive deliberations.
• Led cybersecurity and physical security risk assessment for publicly traded company.