Women have played a critical role in shaping computer science and application security, yet their contributions have often been overlooked in this male-dominated industry. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, it’s the perfect time to recognize the pioneers who have advanced software security through methodologies like obfuscation, encryption, and runtime protection.
While this list is in no way exhaustive of every woman who has contributed to our industry, we wanted to take the time to highlight a few women who have made significant contributions to application security—paving the way for companies like PreEmptive to create tools that empower developers to build more resilient applications.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1958, Joan Feigenbaum has been a trailblazer in security, privacy, and access control for large-scale distributed systems. After earning a mathematics degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford, she shaped the future of secure software policies. As the Grace Murray Hopper Professor of Computer Science at Yale University, Feigenbaum co-invented the concept of trust management systems—an approach that remains fundamental to software security today.
Her work in cryptographic access control has helped safeguard applications against unauthorized breaches, influencing modern software protection strategies. She also pioneered streaming algorithms that facilitate real-time traffic monitoring, essential for anomaly detection and security in today’s digital networks. Feigenbaum’s contributions continue to impact application security, shaping how organizations defend software from evolving cyber threats.
Often called “The Mother of the Internet,” Radia Perlman has played a pivotal role in shaping secure network communications. With a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT, she developed the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), a revolutionary algorithm that ensures stable, redundant, and efficient data routing in network systems. One particularly interesting detail concerning Perlman’s work is its significance in making internet security possible by preventing communication failures through reliable data transmission.
Perlman’s contributions truly highlight the importance of building security into network architecture from the ground up. Her innovations laid the groundwork for safer communication protocols, reinforcing the necessity of proactive measures in software security.
Born in 1983 in the suburbs of Chicago, Parisa Tabriz didn’t start in tech—her first exposure to computer science came during her first year at the University of Illinois. But by the time she graduated with a master’s degree, she had already secured a spot at Google, where she would become one of the most influential figures in browser security.
Tabriz, who embraced the unconventional title “Security Princess,” led the charge in securing Google Chrome, overseeing initiatives that made HTTPS the standard for safer web browsing. Her work in browser security has been instrumental in mitigating JavaScript-based attacks, a critical aspect of modern application security. As web applications remain a prime attack vector, her contributions continue to influence best practices for securing them against evolving threats.
Shafi Goldwasser was born in 1959 in New York City. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in 1979, a Master of Science from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1981 from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in 1985.
Her work has initiated entire subfields of computer science. What she did with encryption laid the theoretical foundation for modern cryptology, which underpins cybersecurity protocols for data transfer. She introduced zero-knowledge proofs in the 1980s, which was the precursor to secure authentication, block-chain privacy, and other privacy-securing protocols. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the A.M. Turing Award in 2012.
Long before cybersecurity was something we all had to worry about, Ada Lovelace laid the foundation for secure software design. Born in 1815, she was a mathematician and visionary who recognized that Charles Babbage’s proposed Analytical Engine could do far more than simple calculations—it could follow structured instructions to execute complex tasks. In writing the first known algorithm, Lovelace became the world’s first computer programmer. She was largely self-educated after being privately tutored throughout her childhood. However, Augustus De Morgan—the University of London’s first mathematics professor—helped her learn advanced mathematics.
She wrote about Babbage’s “analytical machine” and realized that it could perform calculations if she wrote a structured set of instructions, which was the world’s first computer program. Although the computer was never built, her work was the forerunner of today’s algorithmic programs. Although she was far ahead of her time, Lovelace’s vision made software security possible.
Window Snyder has been a force in cybersecurity for over two decades, advocating for security to be built into software from the ground up. As an early proponent of security by design, she helped transform Microsoft’s approach to Windows security. She later made Firefox one of the most secure browsers of its time during her tenure at Mozilla.
And that was just the start—after Mozilla, Snyder joined Apple. There, she drove efforts to make encryption a default feature on all devices, an immeasurably important move that enhanced privacy and data security for millions of users. Making security part of the development lifecycle instead of an afterthought has been instrumental in shaping the secure software development processes that organizations use for threat mitigation.
These are just a few of the countless women who’ve made significant contributions to encryption, anti-tamper technologies, and application shielding. Other notable women and their contributions include:
Women’s contributions are vast and invaluable, yet there are still clear opportunities for progress. For example, women are still underrepresented in cybersecurity and technology leadership roles, holding 25% of cybersecurity jobs globally in 2022—up from just 10% in 2013. Only 17% of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles within Fortune 500 companies are held by women, and women and non-binary individuals make up just 15% of C-suite positions in NASDAQ-100 tech companies.
These imbalances are both a matter of equity and a negative influence on innovation. Nearly 70% of cybersecurity professionals say that an inclusive environment is essential for team success, and diverse teams are simply better at problem-solving. In these and other situations, women bring fresh perspectives and strategic approaches that are invaluable.
While the gender pay gap has seen some improvement, it needs to see more. In 2024, women earned an average of 85% of what men did (up slightly from 81% in 2003).
All of us at PreEmptive want to recognize not only the women featured in this article, but also those who work every day to make the digital world more safe and secure for us all. They’re an ongoing force out in the world, driving innovation, leading teams, and making things happen.
Security isn’t just about tools and code—it’s about the people behind them. By championing women in cybersecurity, we can help to create a stronger, more resilient future. To those who have paved the way and are out there right now forging new paths, we see you, we appreciate you, and we thank you.