Hacking the Hacker

46Profile: Window Snyder

Mwende Window Snyder has worked for a who’s‐who of industry powerhouses. Early on she worked at @Stake as the Director of Security Architecture. @Stake was a great vulnerability‐finding and computer‐security company that generated or acquired more than its fair share of computer superstars. It was eventually acquired by Symantec in 2004. Snyder went to work for Microsoft in 2002 and was a senior security strategist in the Security Engineering and Communications group. She was a contributor to the Security Design Lifecycle (SDL) and co‐developed a new methodology for threat modeling software. She also was a security lead on Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, which was basically Microsoft’s first serious attempt at a secure‐by‐default operating system, and Windows Server 2003. She managed the relationships between security consulting companies and Microsoft and was responsible for its computer security community outreach strategy.

She joined Mozilla in 2006 and used the humorous tongue‐in‐cheek title of “Chief Security Something or Other” instead of the more formal Chief Security Officer (CSO). I remember many of us being quite jealous of the title. She eventually worked for Apple as a senior security product manager, developing security and privacy strategy and features for iOS and OS X. Today she works for Fastly (https://www.fastly.com/), a content delivery network that is quickly expanding into other services such as computer security. Snyder is ...