Window Snyder

Window Snyder is an American security engineer and executive whose career traces the professionalization of computer security from 1990s hacker culture into the boardrooms of the world's largest technology companies. She became active in the Boston-area hacker and security community in the 1990s and went on to become one of the earliest employees of @stake, the pioneering security consultancy, where she worked as Director of Security Architecture.

Snyder was recruited from @stake to Microsoft in the early 2000s, where she worked as a senior security strategist during the company's Trustworthy Computing push. She played a role in the security overhaul behind Windows XP Service Pack 2, helped codify Microsoft's threat-modeling methodology, and created BlueHat, the internal conference that brought outside security researchers together with Microsoft executives. In 2004 she co-authored the book "Threat Modeling" with Frank Swiderski, published by Microsoft Press, which became a widely cited reference for structured, adversary-based approaches to identifying and mitigating software security flaws.

Mozilla, Apple, and Industry-Wide Security Leadership

Snyder joined Mozilla Corporation around 2006 to lead security for the Firefox browser. She left Mozilla around the end of 2008 and, in 2010, joined Apple, where she served as senior product manager for privacy and security. She went on to become Chief Security Officer at Fastly, then took senior security leadership positions at Intel and later at Square (renamed Block).

Later Work and Legacy

In the early 2020s, Snyder founded Thistle Technologies, a startup focused on improving security update and vulnerability management infrastructure for IoT device manufacturers. Across more than two decades, Snyder is regarded as one of the most senior women to have held security engineering and executive leadership roles across an unusually wide span of major technology companies, and her co-authored book on threat modeling remains a reference point in software security practice.

Timeline

• 2002Recruited from @stake to Microsoft as a senior security strategist.
• 2004Co-authored the book 'Threat Modeling' with Frank Swiderski; contributed to security work behind Windows XP Service Pack 2.
• 2005Created Microsoft's BlueHat security conference.
• 2006Joined Mozilla Corporation in a security leadership role.
• 2010Joined Apple as senior product manager for privacy and security.
• 2015Became Chief Security Officer at Fastly.
• 2018Joined Intel in a senior security leadership role.
• 2021-04Founded Thistle Technologies, an IoT device security startup.