“Fiona’s list of accomplishments is so long, and stretches back so far, that it makes me question how I spent my time in high school and college,” says Professor and Director of the BS in Cybersecurity program, Christo Wilson. In addition to graduating Summa Cum Laude this past spring with a major in Cybersecurity and minor in Political Science, Fiona McCrae made herself an invaluable asset to the Northeastern community and will undoubtedly do the same in her post-graduate endeavors.

Shortly after beginning her freshman year, McCrae secured a spot on the highly competitive Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team. In 2019, the team was a local winner in the DOE CyberForce competition at Brookhaven National Laboratory; and in 2020 when the competition went remote, McCrae individually ranked 20th out of 400 competitors. Every year, the team qualified for the Northeast Regional CCDC competitions, and in 2022, the team was one of only 10 schools in the country to attend Nationals in San Antonio.

She was also on the e-board the NU Security Club and a member of the Khoury Student Advisory Board. In all her activities, McCrae says, “Having the chance to interact with younger cybersecurity students to help form a community within the major has been something I am so proud to have contributed to, even if there is no concrete landmark event for that.”

She also brilliantly worked two competitive co-ops in cyber resiliency at MITRE in Bedford, MA, where has she is now working as a cybersecurity engineer. During her co-ops there, she helped develop pen test software and payloads for satellites and attended testing for Satellite Penetration Evaluation and Environment Demonstration (SPEED). She has also contributed to the development of research papers and policy-related briefings for government officials during her time at MITRE.

McCrae’s contributions to NU extend beyond cybersecurity. She was the events coordinator for CoSMO, the computer science mentoring organization that works to connect students across the discipline. She was also a teaching assistant for Discrete Structures, Foundations of Cybersecurity, and Object-Oriented Design. Professor Jason Hemann worked with McCrae in 2020 and says, “She went out of her way to create detailed guides and documentation to help students learn better in this new modality. When there’s a problem lurking, or a solution that needs to be implemented, Fiona steps up.”

Without legal and political guidance based on the needs of people using technology, there is no way to define what and how we need to secure technology. On the other hand, without a technological understanding, we can’t make and act out laws and policies that are realistic or helpful for the people that rely on, use, and protect technology

“Fiona’s warm, outgoing, witty, strong, personable, dependable, and honest,” Professor Hemann says. “She’s the kind of person that other people want to be around.”

Going forward, she hopes to remain connected to both the technical and legal aspects of cybersecurity. In her words, “Without legal and political guidance based on the needs of people using technology, there is no way to define what and how we need to secure technology. On the other hand, without a technological understanding, we can’t make and act out laws and policies that are realistic or helpful for the people that rely on, use, and protect technology.”