​​Dr. Sarah Lewis Cortes - Director, Clerk
Sarah has more than 20 years of global-scale technology experience in domains including information security, privacy, and data management. As a Privacy Engineer in Information Security at Netflix, she is responsible for implementing comprehensive privacy programs. She earned her degrees at Harvard University, studied Forensic Sciences at Boston University Medical School, and holds a PhD in Computer Science, Cybersecurity from Northeastern University, specializing in the darknet, anonymous network communications, privacy and privacy law as well as information security, topics on which she has published extensively.

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Sarah's QR code

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Sarah's Website

Calligraphy

Some of my recent work

Some work of others I admire

I am working on calligraphy, including Gothic Textura Quadrata, and French Script lettering. Here is a new perspective on Marie de France's 1180 lyric poem, Les Deux Amants.​

Roman Rustic lettering in Sumi ink gives a lacquered feel to Dante's Inferno, Canto I.

Biography - short version

• Dr. Sarah Lewis Cortes, CISSP, FIP, CIPP/E (GDPR), CISA, CRISC is in Privacy Engineering and Assurance at Netflix. She earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied Forensic Sciences at Boston University Medical School, and holds a PhD in Computer Science, Cybersecurity from Northeastern University. She specializes in the dark net, privacy and privacy law, as well as IT Security, topics on which she has published extensively. She conducts training and research with the FBI, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensics Crime Lab, and other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). 
• Prior to undertaking her PhD, Sarah was Senior Vice President for Security, IT Audit and Disaster Recovery at Putnam Investments. She oversaw Putnam’s recovery on 9/11 when then-parent company Marsh & McLennan’s World Trade Center 99th floor data center was destroyed. 
• She serves as an appointed Team Lead for the NIST Privacy Workforce Working Group (PWWG), and has published NIST privacy framework crosswalks. She also serves on the Privacy Engineering Advisory Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). A former analyst for the US Department of Energy, she led the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Working Group sub-team as co-author, that created the security and privacy laws section of the 2014 NIST: Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security: Vol. 2, Privacy and the Smart Grid.
• ​In her work to help end cyberstalking and abuse through technology, and create economic empowerment through workforce development, Sarah serves on the Boards of Emerge, a global organization which fights domestic violence and intimate partner abuse (IPV/IPA), and Each1 Teach1, dedicated to training for technology employment.

Biography - long version
Dr. Sarah Lewis Cortes, CISSP, FIP, CIPP/E (GDPR), CISA, CRISC is in Privacy Engineering and Assurance at Netflix. She earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied Forensic Sciences at Boston University Medical School, and holds a PhD in Computer Science, Cybersecurity from Northeastern University. She specializes in the dark net, privacy and privacy law, as well as IT Security, topics on which she has published extensively. She conducts training and research with the FBI, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensics Crime Lab, and other LEAs. She has implemented and overseen major security and privacy programs and operations in regulated industries, helping them achieving compliance in SOC2, SOX, PCI, GDPR, CCPA, and other laws, regulations and control frameworks.
Prior to undertaking her PhD, Sarah was Senior Vice President for Security, IT Audit and Disaster Recovery at Putnam Investments, an investment management firm with over $400 billion in assets under management, and 79 mutual funds. She oversaw Putnam’s recovery on 9/11 when then-parent company Marsh & McLennan’s World Trade Center 99th floor data center was destroyed. She also supervised over and 65 compliance and IT audits per year as well as incident investigations. As a senior executive and later consultant for Putnam and other Fortune 500 firms, Sarah also had responsibility for major applications development, data center and other operations, with over 100+ staff and $50m budgets. Before that, Sarah was a Sr. VP for Data Center and Security Operations and Compliance with BNY Mellon Bank, a global investments company with $1.6 trillion in assets under management, previously a part of Shearson/Lehman/American Express, the giant financial services conglomerate.
Sarah helped draft the first-ever data breach law, in Massachusetts in 2008, and testified before legislatures on Data Breach Laws, and Massachusetts General Law (MGL) Chapter 93H. She also testified before the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs & Business Regulation (OCABR) on its privacy regulations, 201 CMR 17.00 As part of the NIST Privacy and Security Working Group from 2009-2016, she co-authored the NIST 7628, Smart Grid Security, Privacy Standards in 2010, and the 2014 revision.
Sarah has published extensively on computer security, privacy, mutual criminal legal assistance treaties (MLATs), and the dark net, including MLAT.is World Treaty Cartel Internet Overlay for Dark net and Digital Traffic Analytics for MLAT.is, featured in the 209 IEEE International Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST17). She serves as a referee for Computers & Security Journal.
She has implemented numerous computer applications in use today. Together with Department Chair, Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Forensic Sciences and former Cellmark lab director Dr. Robin Cotton et al., Sarah implemented the DNA Mixtures online tool, with a grant from the US Department of Justice. DNA Mixtures was highlighted in the Executive Office of the President, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), Report to the President: Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods in 2016.
Sarah currently serves as an appointed Team Lead for the NIST Privacy Workforce Working Group (PWWG), and has published NIST privacy framework crosswalks. She also serves on the Privacy Engineering Advisory Board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). A former analyst for the US Department of Energy, she led the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Working Group sub-team as co-author, that created the security and privacy laws section of the 2014 NIST: Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security: Vol. 2, Privacy and the Smart Grid, as well as the 2010 volume. She served on the privacy use cases team for two years and the NIST cybersecurity working group (CSWG) on Smart Grid privacy for seven years. She has co-led Northeastern University Law School Legal Skills in Social Context (LSSC) clinics on surveillance law and online privacy tools and technology, as well as an MIT Co-Design Studio class at MIT Media Lab. She has helped draft data breach laws, and testified before the Massachusetts legislature and regulatory agencies.
In addition to her work on various industry standards bodies, Sarah serves on the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) P1912 Privacy and Security Architecture for Consumer Wireless Devices Working Group. Sarah serves as a postdoctoral researcher in Digital & Multimedia evidence at the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab in Digital and Multimedia Evidence, and trains law enforcement in forensic techniques.
​In her work to help end cyberstalking and abuse through technology, and create economic empowerment through workforce development, Sarah serves on the Boards of Emerge, a global organization which fights domestic violence and intimate partner abuse (IPV/IPA), and Each One Teach One, dedicated to training for technology employment.