Guardian of the Cyber Galaxy

Bonnie Bethea Limmer ’02 played a key role in the response to that breach — and uncovered important lessons that could prevent a future attack. As the chief of production for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Limmer works to identify and share information about cyber threats and vulnerabilities so organizations can safeguard themselves. In the aftermath of the Colonial Pipeline attack, Limmer’s team produced an advisory that outlined the attacker’s tactics and shared steps the cyber community, as well as organizations and corporations, could implement to prevent similar attacks in the future.

“In a U.S. cyber mission, the FBI is like the police and CISA is like the fire department,” Limmer says. “We see the problem, rush to aid the victim and then gather information so we can educate the wider community. During that type of incident response, especially when there’s public pressure and media attention, the operational tempo is high. You’re trying to quickly weave pieces of information from various sources into a clear understanding of what happened and what to do about it — it requires strong communication, trust and teamwork.”