Parisa Tabriz is Google’s self-described “Security Princess,” a euphemism she created in part because “hired hacker” sounds kind of evil. Her job is to figure out the problems with Google Chrome and fix them before the bad guys do. That’s a pretty amazing job for anyone, much less a 31-year-old woman, which isn’t exactly the norm in the tech world. Last July, Elle magazine ran a long profile on her.
(Full disclosure: I knew Parisa in high school and we had classes together, though we haven’t talked much since graduating.)
We spoke with Parisa about how she gets into the mind of a hacker, how we can get more women into this field, and how ignorance really isn’t bliss in her world.