Kemba Walden

Principal Deputy National Cyber Director

Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD)

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Kemba Eneas Walden is the inaugural Principal Deputy National Cyber Director in the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) responsible for ensuring that every American is able to freely thrive in our interconnected society. She leads a growing team of over 60 individuals who strives for a robust and resilient internet that reflects our democratic views, empowers our economy, and protects our privacy. Kemba also serves as a member of the Cyber Safety Review Board and contributed to its review of the December 2021 Log4j Event.  Prior to ONCD, Kemba was an Assistant General Counsel in Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) responsible for launching and leading DCU’s Ransomware Program. Kemba also served as a working group co-chair of the Ransomware Task Force and contributed to its report.  Kemba started her career at Microsoft as Senior Counsel for Cyber and Democracy providing legal counsel to the Defending Democracy Program through the 2020 Presidential Election. Prior to Microsoft, Kemba spent a decade in government service at the Department of Homeland Security. At DHS, Kemba held several attorney roles, specifically as the lead attorney for the DHS representative to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and then as a cybersecurity attorney for the newly created Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and its predecessor, which is responsible for cybersecurity, telecommunications, and infrastructure resilience. Kemba negotiated complex data protection, information sharing, risk mitigation, and national security agreements, supported DHS’s cybersecurity and risk management efforts in several critical infrastructure sectors. Upon her departure from DHS, her energy was spent as the primary cybersecurity legal advisor to the Elections Task Force (now known as the Elections Security Initiative).

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