How Sandia Labs’ Chrisma Jackson protects nuclear secrets from hackers around the clock

It’s one thing to worry about your own privacy in the digital age, but imagine what it’s like to be Chrisma Jackson, the top cybersecurity boss for Sandia National Laboratories.

Jackson must worry about protecting some of the nation’s most closely held nuclear weapons secrets from hackers who are constantly waging increasingly sophisticated attacks.

“A lot of people joke that you never sleep because the adversary never sleeps,” says Jackson. “They’re in all different time zones across the world, so when we’re sleeping, they’re still active.

“The team I have really tries to anticipate and think about the opportunity spaces in defending our network, and that's a hard thing to do. It's such an intractable problem.”

Jackson has a long title — director of cybersecurity and mission computing and chief information security officer. In addition to data protection, her job involves overseeing Sandia’s high-performance supercomputer centers and developing software for cybersecurity, satellite systems and other missions across the lab.

Jackson has held her current job since 2022, but has been at Sandia for nearly three decades.

During that time, she has mentored numerous students through her ties with her alma mater, Texas A&M University, as well as Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college near Houston.

She tells students that while they should have a plan for their future, they should never “be afraid to pivot” or to welcome opportunities they might not have envisioned.

That’s what happened to Jackson, who started out studying “rotational equipment,” like ball bearings, and risk assessment and then wound up working with nuclear matters that require the highest levels of cybersecurity.

“Who would have thought when I was thinking about blowing things up and loving to study the dynamics of how something explodes, that now I’d be working on bits, bytes and things I’ll never see,” Jackson says.

What are some of the biggest threats Sandia is facing right now?

We are trusted with government mission data that many adversaries would love to have, which makes us a target. I’ll just use an analogy. You probably have personal and work email, and you see attacks all the time, whether they end up in your junk (folder) or not. Us, too. They’re every day. I mean, that’s just the reality of cyber. How do we ensure the trust of the government… and that data is not corrupted, intercepted, stolen, etc? Because you can imagine if our nuclear weapons data was corrupted...

Does Sandia’s cybersecurity research have benefits for the general public?

Absolutely. As a federally funded research and development corporation, we lean into those problems industry cannot, will not or should not do. Effectively, we don’t compete with industry and so essentially, we will partner with industry, academia and other labs. We develop software that we can patent, license or release (as) shareware, and there’s different opportunity spaces in how we have done that. And it’s incredibly important right now as we’re leaning into artificial intelligence.

What do you worry about?

Worry is probably not the right word, because it kind of excites me. What occupies my brain is how do we … not be afraid of the challenges of the future and not shy away from them? The challenges associated with artificial intelligence — there’s a lot of hype around it, but … it has some promise (that is) grounded in reality, and maybe some things that may be overhyped. How do we find the right integration of leveraging artificial intelligence — this integration of information that allows us to move faster and do things — and leveraging the human knowledge we have and the ability to do the things we do?

What do you do in your free time?

I spend every Saturday at Animal Humane walking dogs. I have a deep affinity for dogs, and, in fact, work with their behavioral modification program, which is the shy dogs or dogs that have extra energy and maybe a little aggressiveness. It disconnects me from the stress of what national security can bring. When you see a dog that was shying in the corner and then maybe within even 15 minutes of training is starting to warm up, that’s just a whole different level of reward.

How did your career go from ball bearings to nuclear cybersecurity?

I was finishing up my master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and … I was doing interviews. I received a call from a gentleman who was manager of one of our (Sandia’s) nuclear weapons programs in California. He left a message on my answering machine, and it was, “Give me a call back if you have no moral or ethical issues working with nuclear weapons.” As a college student, that’s not the question you expect to have on your answering machine. So I paused. I took a day, and I thought, “Why not me?” Rather than “Why me?” it was, “Why not me?” You have the choice in life to lean in or take a step back, and I was curious.

And did you have any ethical issues regarding nuclear weapons?

The (U.S.) president has authority over the use, but we have, as part of our national security portfolio, nuclear weapons as part of our deterrence methodology. And I believe I can deeply contribute to the safety, security and reliability of our nuclear weapons stockpile.

In your mentoring role, is there someone you’re particularly proud of?

I’ve mentored an individual since they were in high school, and now they just finished their master’s degree, and they actually work for my cyber team. When I first met him, he was hacking his parents’ Siri. I remember speaking to him that first time. He said, “Sometimes my parents’ music is up too loud, and I don’t really like it, so I’ll hack that device and turn it back down.” (Mentoring) keeps me sharp. At the same time, how can I help them see where the pathways are? When I look throughout computational sciences, cybersecurity, there have been very traditional paths people have carved through getting their degree in computer science. But there’s also the nontraditional, and I’m an example of that.

Ellen Marks, a former Journal editor, writes One-on-One profiles and Scam Watch. You can reach her at emarks@abqjournal.com.