In Her Own Words: Shannon Pierson focuses on public-interest cybersecurity
By Ellen Sherberg
Headlines are filled with cybersecurity hacks of major companies that originate all over the globe, but who looks out locally for our schools, hospitals, utilities? Shannon Pierson and her colleagues at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, a policy think tank, are focused on protecting critical infrastructure targets.
Like many folks in the field of cybersecurity, my path to this work wasn’t linear. I followed my interests in emerging cybersecurity threats and their impact on individuals’ privacy and well-being. I enjoyed posing questions and reading academic literature about ways ethical, equitable, and secure technology design can help mitigate harm.
My curiosity led me to roles in cyber threat intelligence and consulting for Big Tech companies, including Meta, Microsoft, and other major social media platforms, where I helped investigate and respond to adversarial threats threatening platform integrity during high-risk events like elections. I also spent time at a variety of think tanks and research labs focused on answering socio-technical and public policy questions surrounding cybersecurity, including the Helmholtz Center for Information Security, the German Marshall Fund, the Wilson Center, and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Technology & Democracy...
Shannon Pierson serves as the Senior Fellow of Public-Interest Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity.
