Real Technologists: Shannon Lietz

Real Technologists

My friend and mentor, Mark Miller, recently introduced me to Shannon Lietz. She joined our global journalist pool for a cybersecurity and open source podcast called "It's 5:05."

Mark gushed about Shannon going as far as saying, Shannon coined the term DevSecOps. Okay. To be fair, everyone knows Patrick Debaux coined DevOps, but neither Google nor ChatGPT agreed on where the term DevSecOps originated. That being said, I did find out that Shannon has been wildly active on the DevSecOps scene going back to 2015.

At the time. She took on responsibility for introducing DevSecOps to Intuit and helped establish DevSecOps.org.

This is where you find the original DevSecOps manifesto with signatories from prominent folks from industry, including Shannon's colleagues from Intuit at the time: Robert Mesa, Ian Allison, Michelle Nicholson, and VP, Erik Naugle.

There are many of us in the software industry who have always included security as a fundamental aspect of all software; that said, many of us also observed the rabid implementation of agile and DevOps techniques, which was often hyper-focused on Dev and Ops leaving the security pros high and dry.

Shannon emphasized the importance of shifting security left, meaning integrating security measures early in the development process rather than treating it as an afterthought. Her work focuses on establishing a culture of security, awareness and collaboration among development, operations and security teams.

One thing is fact, Shannon has been a thought leader in the DevSecOps movement and has a love of metrics... that's right, metrics.

The vibe I got from Shannon Leitz is one of resilience and determination. When I got the opportunity to meet her face-to-face at the RSA conference, that cemented the vibe. She's a kickboxer with a home gym and so fearless that when we walked back to our hotels after dark, it took three of us to persuade Shannon to not walk alone.

I couldn't quite put my finger on the source of her moxy... She grew up in LA though I swear her accent sounds like she's from Minnesota!

Growing up in Los Angeles, Shannon was exposed to a diverse range of perspectives and experiences... her mother was an artist while her father worked as a banker.

This resonated with me so much... my mother, Janet, was an artist and an art teacher and we spent summers presenting her work at shows around the East Coast.

This unique blend sparks some pretty awesome left brain, right brain dynamics and sets the stage for a wide range of interests; Shannon also has natural intellectual curiosity.

Her initial interest in computers and technology started when her father made a significant decision. With the passing of Shannon's grandmother, he bought a home computer.