Tribe of Hackers Security Leaders

20Mary Ann Davidson

“Going back to a job where my core integrity was valued meant everything to me.”

Twitter: @heenaluwahine

Mary Ann Davidson is the chief security officer at Oracle, responsible for Oracle software security assurance. She serves on the international board of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). Davidson has testified on cybersecurity to the U.S. House of Representatives (Energy and Commerce Committee, Armed Services Committee) and the U.S. Senate Committee on commerce, science, and technology.

Davidson has a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She has also served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps.

Do you believe there is a massive shortage of career cybersecurity professionals?

Ninety percent of life is solving the right problem. There is clearly a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. However, before we discuss how to bridge the gap, let's step back and look at why we have such a great need.

Unfortunately, technology (specifically, internet-connected technology) continues to appear in places where it arguably doesn't solve any useful problems. This has the potential for creating systemic risk—that by definition cannot be mitigated but needs to be avoided. For example, connecting your refrigerator to the internet ...