Tarah Wheeler

Tarah Marie Wheeler (born February 12, 1979) is an American technology and cybersecurity author, public speaker, entrepreneur and former executive. She is currently a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at D.C. policy think-tank New America.She is the former Website Cybersecurity Czar at Symantec,author of Women in Tech, and founder of Infosec Unlocked.

Wheeler received her bachelor's degree from Carroll College and a master's degree in political science from Portland State University.In 2004, she was named a National Science Foundation-funded fellow at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan.

In 2012, Wheeler founded now-defunct employee management company Fizzmint.

From 2012 to 2014 Wheeler was a systems architect at mobile encryption firm Silent Circle..

In 2014, Wheeler founded Infosec Unlocked, a diversity non-profit, whose goal is to help bring more diverse voices to infosec conferences across the United States through paper writing events and scholarships. This was an extension of her YouTube series where she discussed diversity topics, "DEF CON Unlocked."This series mostly covered topics relating to diversity at DEF CON, one of the world's largest hacker conferences.

In 2016, Wheeler was named a Cybersecurity Passcode Influencer by Christian Science Monitor and spoke to the Federal Trade Commission on information security in tech startups.

After a Kickstarter campaign, Wheeler published Women in Tech, a book dedicated to teaching women how to succeed in tech careers. The book was published with several contributors, including Esther Dyson and Brianna Wu, one of the targets of the Gamergate controversy.

In August 2017, Wheeler announced on Twitter that she left Symantec to work on several books. In October, she was awarded the inaugural "Women Leaders in Cybersecurity Award" from NYU. Wheeler and her husband Deviant Ollam helped cybersecurity expert Marcus Hutchins with his bail in August 2017 and to house him in Los Angeles during his arraignment period while he was investigated by the FBI on charges related to the Kronos rootkit.

She had been Senior Director, Data Trust & Threat and Vulnerability Management at Splunk.

She is currently a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at D.C. policy think-tank New America.

Wheeler has been cited in national media on issues relating to cybersecurity such as cyberterrorism, malware and data breaches and has written about cyberwar policy.

Wheeler has competed in the World Series of Poker with $3640 in lifetime cashes.

In Women in Tech, Wheeler notes that the interests such as poker can be useful in business, the same way golf can be.