dr. Melanie Rieback

Over Melanie Rieback

Dr. Melanie Rieback is the CEO/Co-founder of Radically Open Security (ROS), the world’s first non-profit computer security consultancy company. ROS is a collective of ethical hackers who want to disrupt the computer security world with their ideals. They do this by donating 90% of their profits to the NLnet foundation, by making all developed tools open source, by inviting customers to actively participate and by focusing on openness, transparency and social involvement. In order to further promote these ideals, Melanie Rieback has recently launched Non-Profit Ventures. This is an incubator for other non-profit start-ups and companies.

Prior to that, Melanie worked as Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the VU. There she researched the safety of RFID chips. Melanie’s research won several awards and attracted international media attention. Melanie worked as a Senior Engineering Manager XenClient at Citrix. There she was in charge of the Vancouver office. Melanie also worked for ING as a Principal Investigator for the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT). At ING, she was in charge of the analysis lab and the ING Core Threat Intelligence Project.

In 2008, Melanie set up the Dutch Girl Geek Diner. Melanie has received many awards and distinctions for her work. In 2010 Melanie was nominated as ICT professional of the year (finalist) by WomeninIT, in 2010 and 2017 Melanie was on the Viva400 list, and in 2016, 2017 and 2019 Inspiring Fifty was named one of the 50 most inspiring women in tech. In 2018 Melanie won the TIM Award as the most inspiring IT leader. In 2019, Melanie was nominated for the EU Women Innovators Prize. This makes Melanie one of the 9 most innovative women in the European Union. Finally, in 2016, Radically Open Security was proclaimed one of the 50th most innovative SME companies by the Chamber of Commerce.