Sophie McDowall is a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD’s) Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation. Her research focuses on issues related to cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, federal cybersecurity policy, emerging technologies, and influence operations. She previously served as an intern at FDD. Sophie holds a B.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University, majoring in science, technology, and international affairs with a security concentration, and minoring in computer science. She is currently pursuing her M.S. in data science and analytics.