Liisa Past (CISSP, MA) is a cyber security and strategic communication expert. As the National Cyber Director of Estonia, Liisa focused on protecting the infrastructure of democracy in the digital world and securing our increasingly electronic way of life. Her mandate centered on strategic and policy cohesion accross the Estonian society.
As the CISO of the IT and Development Centre at the Estonian Ministry of the Interior, she was responsible for mainstreaming information security practices across technology that saves lives in homeland security, including ISO 27001 compliance, introducing a SOC to consolidate numerous information sources.
Liisa has served as the Chief National Cyber Risk Officer for the Estonian Government Office and Chief Research Officer at the Cyber Security Branch of the Estonian Information System Authority, where she designed, led and carried out analysis related to cyber security, including risk, threat and impact assessments. She worked with the cyber security offerings of the R&D-intensive ICT company Cybernetica, the force behind critical digital governance systems and cutting edge applied research. Liisa spent 2018-2019 as a Next Generation Leader at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at the Arizona State University focusing on cyber security of the technologies underlying democracies and elections.
Liisa was a driving force behind the Estonian comprehensive risk assessment of elections and the first edition of the Compendium on Cyber Security of Election Technology, published under the auspices of the Cooperation Group of the EU Network and Information Security Directive. While serving on the directorate of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, she ran both the external relations of and the StratCom game in the world’s largest international technical network defence exercise Locked Shields.
Liisa is widely published on often speaks on cyber security, strategic communication and risk management.