Parnian Najafi

Parnian Najafi is an accomplished cybersecurity professional with extensive expertise spanning both academia and industry. She currently serves as the Cybersecurity Frontline Services function lead at Google, where she manages and leads a team of security engineers providing cyber intrusion investigation support and threat intelligence across the Americas. Her passion for cybersecurity also extends to academia, where she contributes as an Adjunct Professor at George Mason University. In this role, she teaches malware reverse engineering, develops hands-on curricula, and leads workshops focused on best practices in the field.

Previously, she held leadership roles at Mandiant (part of Google Cloud), serving as the Mandiant Archeology Manager. There, she leveraged her deep expertise to contribute to security analysis and threat intelligence efforts. Prior to that, she spent over seven years at FireEye as a Managing Principal Analyst and Senior Cybersecurity Analyst, where she specialized in analyzing the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by threat actors and their evolution, as well as assessing threats to critical infrastructure, IoT devices, and vehicles.

Her academic background includes a notable tenure as a Research Collaborator at the NIH, where she explored the application of machine learning techniques to better understand human brain cognition. Additionally, Najafi worked with General Motors, designing and building penetration testing labs focused on vehicle security, particularly for embedded ECUs.

Earlier in her career, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in programming, information security, and statistics at the University of South Carolina, George Mason University, and the University of Malaya. She also conducted research on embedded systems and vehicle security as a Research Assistant at George Mason University. With a unique blend of practical experience and academic insight, Parnian Najafi continues to push the boundaries of cybersecurity while educating, mentoring, and shaping the next generation of professionals in the field.

Credentials:

PhD in Information Technology, George Mason University

Courses:
DFOR 761 – Malware Reverse Engineering