Lea Kissner, LinkedIn
Real-world security is a human-driven challenge that demands cross-functional collaboration—not just from security teams, but also from partners like SRE, Trust, and Legal—because most security goals (like reliability and accountability) are shared across disciplines. From hacker pipelines like Scattered Spider, to the complexities of cryptography as key management, to the dark realities of ransomware and state-sponsored actors, security is deeply entangled with people, systems, and incentives. The lesson: security isn’t just about fixing bugs—it’s about understanding motivations, building alliances with partners and stakeholders across the org, and designing systems that make doing the right thing the easy thing.
Lea Kissner is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at LinkedIn. With over two decades of leadership in security, privacy, and anti-abuse technologies, Kissner has held senior roles at Google (Global Lead, Privacy Technology), Twitter (CISO & Head of Privacy Engineering), Lacework (CISO), and Humu (Chief Privacy Officer), served as a consultant to Zoom during its rapid security scaling in 2020. They hold a Ph.D. in Computer Science (specializing in cryptography) from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from UC Berkeley. Known for pioneering in the field of privacy engineering, contributing to systems like Google’s Zanzibar and BeyondProd, Kissner is also a board member of USENIX. At LinkedIn, Lea brings a thoughtful, user-centric approach to security—centered on protecting members, customers, and employees by integrating security deeply into platform systems.
author = {Lea Kissner},
title = {Security Theater Is Canceled: Time for a Real Show},
year = {2025},
address = {Seattle, WA},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = aug
}