Meet Google's secret weapon in the global cyber war

Meet Google's "Security Princess", the company's top secret weapon whom is charged with safeguarding one of the world's largest tech giants.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Her name is Parisa Tabriz, a professional hacker whom is paid to attack her own company to find out and exploit any existing weaknesses before outside hackers do.

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Tabriz and her team are tasked with protecting Google Chrome and its nearly one billion users from outside attacks.

The 31-year-old hacker occupies somewhat of a rare place in Silicon Valley. Female's are largely under-represented in the tech industry, and not only is she hugely important to Google, but she also heads up a team of 30 experts in the United States and Europe.

Tabriz also gave herself her own title, and chose "Security Princess" while attending a conference in Tokyo.

"I knew I'd have to hand out my card and I thought Information Security Engineer sounded so boring. Guys in the industry all take it so seriously, so security princess felt suitably whimsical."

While females are usually not prevalent in Silicon Valley companies, Google is an exception.

In early 2014, Google revealed that 30% of their work force is female.

"Fifty years ago there were similar percentages of women in medicine and law, now thankfully that's shifted," Tabriz said.

"Technology is one of the fastest-growing fields, but in that respect it has a lot of catching up to do."

Tabriz said that since she joined Google in 2007, she hasn't encountered much overt sexism, but when she was initially offered the job while at college, a fellow student told her that she only got the job because she was a girl.

"The jerks are the ones that tend to be the most insecure, but that didn't stop me worrying he might be right," she said.

Tabriz was named one of Forbes' 30 under 30 to watch in 2012. The magazine believes that part of the reason that women are under-represented in the tech industry is because they keep themselves down.

"There was a study done a few years ago which questioned people who had dropped out of their computer science course," she said.

"Women who left tended to have a B-minus average and the most common reason they gave was that they were finding it too hard, whereas among the men the most common grade was a low C but the reason they gave was that it wasn't interesting."

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