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Elizabeth Vish

Senior Director for International Cyber Engagement

Elizabeth Vish leads IST’s work engaging leaders outside the United States with recommendations from IST’s work on the Future of Digital Security. She regularly contributes to global discussions on cybersecurity best practices, including how the public and private sector can collaborate effectively and how the multistakeholder community can offer cyber capacity building to developing nations.  

Before joining IST, Elizabeth served as a member of the State Department’s cyber foreign policy team. In this role, she led large-scale interagency coordination on cyber capacity building efforts globally and provided practical support for Embassies and the U.S. interagency on how to approach cyber capacity building efforts. While in the State Cyber Diplomacy team, her portfolios also included policy related to deterrence, attribution, cyber effects operation policy, and the G20, as well as bilateral and regional engagements with Africa. Ms. Vish was a Presidential Management Fellow from 2013 – 2015, covering macroeconomic trends and debt issues at the Department of Treasury and good governance and government fiscal transparency in the State Department’s Office of Monetary Affairs.

Ms. Vish served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Forum for Cyber Expertise from 2022 – 2024, and continues to lead IST’s engagement with the GFCE. Previous to her federal career, she worked at the National Democratic Institute and the Education Center for Women in Democracy to strengthen democratic practices in sub-Saharan Africa. She received a Master’s of Arts in International Relations with honors from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with dual concentrations in International Economics and Southeast Asian Studies. 

Areas of Expertise: technology diplomacy; responsible state behavior in cyberspace; cyber capacity building and foreign assistance; cyber operations policy; public private partnerships; technology and religion; Africa cyberspace policy; technology and democratic processes; women’s participation in technology policy-making

 

Content

IST Contributes to the International Counter Ransomware Initiative Summit for the Fourth Consecutive Year: Exercises, Workshops, and Private Sector Advisory Panel

Blog

IST Contributes to the International Counter Ransomware Initiative Summit for the Fourth Consecutive Year: Exercises, Workshops, and Private Sector Advisory Panel

Over the last four years, IST has been a critical partner to the International Counter Ransomware Initiative's coalition of governments and other key partners in their effort to coordinate global actions against ransomware. This October, IST’s Steve Kelly, Elizabeth Vish, and Gigi Flores Bustamante joined the CRI’s fifth summit in Singapore to deliver IST’s research on public-private partnerships to combat cybercrime.
counter ransomware initiative, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, international collaboration, Public-private partnerships, Ransomware, Singapore, TTX
December 10, 2025
Public Private Partnerships to Combat Ransomware: An inquiry into three case studies and best practices

Report

Public Private Partnerships to Combat Ransomware: An inquiry into three case studies and best practices

IST, in collaboration with the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise and in support of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative, examines three existing public-private partnerships to combat ransomware: Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the United States Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), and the Institute for Security and Technology’s Ransomware Task Force (RTF). What challenges did they face? What does an ideal public-private partnership look like?
CISA, cyber, EC3, European Cybercrime Centre, JCDC, Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, PPPs, Public-private partnerships, Ransomware
March 27, 2024
Hotlines for the Digital Age: Improving communications in cyber-generated national security crises

Blog

Hotlines for the Digital Age: Improving communications in cyber-generated national security crises

What do countries that don’t have regular high-level security communications pathways do when their critical digital infrastructure is under cyber attack, and the cyber attack appears to be coming from the territory of a country on the other side of the globe? An ongoing negotiation convened under the United Nations First Committee is building a structure to make clear and urgent communication on cybersecurity incidents accessible to every government. 
hotlines, Ransomware, Russia, United Nations
July 6, 2023
Scaling What’s Successful: Discussions on Countering Ransomware at the Paris Peace Forum

Blog

Scaling What’s Successful: Discussions on Countering Ransomware at the Paris Peace Forum

On November 11, IST's Elizabeth Vish joined experts from across the cybersecurity community at the Paris Peace Forum to discuss ways public-private partnerships can address the ransomware crisis.
cybersecurity, Paris Peace Forum, Public-private partnerships, Ransomware
December 2, 2022