CS Student @ George Mason University
I figure out how systems work and how they break. I focus on malware, vulnerability research, and digital privacy.
ZeroTail LLC
I run a boutique security firm for high-risk individuals. I provide 1:1 consulting to manage their risk, secure their online presence, and configure hardware. We also sell pre-configured high-security devices, VPS, and dedicated servers.
ZeroTail Research Labs
I founded an independent, nonprofit security research initiative that conducts assessments of consumer hardware, firmware, and software to identify vulnerabilities and publish findings in the public interest.
AI Red Teaming & Research
Companies hire me to break their proprietary AI models, find jailbreaks, and expose bypasses before deployment.
The reality is that generative AI is a fundamental privacy and security nightmare. No matter what corporations claim about their "guardrails," they are flat-out lying to fill their own pockets. These models do not function without continuous mass-scraping that violates basic privacy, human rights, and copyright law. If these companies stop training, the models rot and become instantly outdated, yet continuous training costs billions—making the entire sector an unsustainable, unprofitable bubble heading straight into Model Collapse.
To be clear: I am not talking about all computer science or specialized algorithms. I am talking about generative LLMs producing endless output that drives up electric bills, melts glaciers, and dries up water supplies. These models are inherently insecure. They will always be jailbroken, unstable, and easily manipulated. Their training bias guarantees the same structural security flaws over and over again, producing hallucinated, gaslit code filled with vulnerabilities so obvious a child could break through them. Yet Fortune 500 executives will pat themselves on the back and ship this broken output to production just to avoid paying human workers a living wage.
Security Research & Threat Intel
- Malware & YARA: I take malware apart with Vaccinator Security. I've also developed and tested YARA rules, and automated running malware samples on Recorded Future and Triage.
- Phishing & Scams: For FishFish, I contributed to a collection of hundreds of thousands of malicious domains. For the Ethereum Foundation, I tracked down active crypto scams and helped stop users from getting drained.
- AI Vulnerability Research: Found critical vulnerabilities and jailbreaks in KAI AI's models (helped their engineers patch them) and in Discord's Clyde AI bot (which Discord ended up nuking before ever rolling it out completely).
- VX Underground: Edited the JIT-Linker chapter for the book Black Mass Volume 3.
Privacy Advocacy
I believe digital privacy is a basic human right. I align closely with Yanis Varoufakis’s analysis of technofeudalism—the reality that Big Tech has enclosed the digital commons into proprietary cloud fiefdoms, turning users into data-generating serfs. My personal tech stack is built to resist that: I daily drive GrapheneOS, rely on open-source software, and refuse to default to closed-source ecosystems when open, decentralized alternatives exist.
I donate my own money and time to privacy non-profits, but I also organize on the ground. I’ve done phone banking, protested, and worked with human rights and digital privacy groups to fight mass surveillance and automated dragnet tracking (like Flock Safety's ALPR network). I publicly call out corporations for privacy violations, and I collaborate legally with hacktivist groups to push back against surveillance monopolies.
Past Work
- OCS IT (2023 - 2024): IT support and system administration. Managed Windows servers, Active Directory, and fixed networks for local clients.
- Community Management (2022 - 2024): Managed a 162,000-member community for a YouTube channel with 1.72M subscribers. I wrote automated rules to catch and ban scammers and spammers.
Education
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George Mason University: B.S. Computer Science, Cybersecurity (Aug 2026 – May 2030)
[Coursework]
Semester 1:
- CS 108 - Intro Programming, Part A
- CS 110 - Essentials of Computer Science
- GEOL 101 - Physical Geology
- GEOL 103 - Physical Geology Lab
- MATH 105 - Precalculus Mathematics
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Florida Gulf Coast University: Dual Enrollment / ACE Program (Completed May 2026)
[Coursework]
Semester 2:
- ANT 2000 - Introduction to Anthropology
- PHI 1010 - Introduction to Philosophy
- PHI 2620 - Environmental Ethics
- POS 2041 - American National Government
- STA 2023 - Statistical Methods
Semester 1:
- CGS 1100 - Computer Software & Technology
- ECO 2013 - Principles of Macroeconomics
- IDH 1023 - ACE Elements of Honors
- MAC 2233 - Elementary Calculus I
- PHI 1630 - Contemporary Moral Issues
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Florida SouthWestern State College: Dual Enrollment (Completed 2025)
[Coursework]
- ENC 1101 — Composition I
- ENC 1102 — Composition II
- CTS 1131 — Computer Hardware
- COP 1000 — Introduction to Computer Programming
- CNT 1000 — Computer Networking Essentials
- CTS 1133 — Computer Software
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North Fort Myers High School: High School Diploma (Completed May 2026)
[Coursework]
- Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science (9618)
Contact
- Email: nicholas@tardie.com
- Signal: nicholas.12
- Matrix: @nicholas:4d2.org
- XMPP: nicholas@og.im
- SimpleX: Connect via SimpleX
- LinkedIn: nicholas-tardie
- PGP: 4F2A 91C8 3E7B 60D1 A9F4 2C8E 7A3F 9C2E 1B84 D056