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The Women Reimagining Cybersecurity’s Future
ByGeri Stengel,
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Geri Stengel writes about the success factors of women entrepreneurs.
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Oct 20, 2025, 07:00am EDTOct 23, 2025, 09:37am EDT
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One women reimagining cybersecurity’s future.
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In an industry still dominated by men, May Chen-Contino is rewriting what cybersecurity leadership looks like. As CEO of Unit 221B, a women-led cybersecurity firm, she helps enterprises and law enforcement fight cybercriminals who move seamlessly between online and real-world crimes. With a $5 million seed round led by J2 Ventures, Chen-Contino is scaling a company that pairs technical mastery with social purpose in a global threat-intelligence market projected to reach $11.55 billion by 2025.
May Chen-Contino, CEO of a women-led cybersecurity company, Unit 221B.
Ylva Everall. photographer and director.
Cybercrime has become a global industry—one projected to cost companies $10.5 trillion in 2025—and threatens both privacy and safety. Unit 221B is part of a new generation of women-led cybersecurity companies focused on threat disruption rather than passive monitoring.
Founded in 2015 as a small security services team, the company evolved into a technology-driven threat-intelligence platform under Chen-Contino’s leadership. Its researchers track “criminal chatter” across encrypted channels, social networks, and dark-web forums, transforming data into actionable insights.
The results are tangible. Unit 221B’s work has supported U.S. Department of Justice investigations that led to arrests in the Snowflake hacker case and the prosecution of a U.S. Army soldier who extorted AT&T for presidential call logs.
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The firm also works with gaming publisher Bungie to combat harassment, cheating, and intellectual-property theft—efforts that have resulted in multiple lawsuits and criminal convictions. Unit 221B researchers have also helped trace the activities of the online collective known as The Com, identifying how its members escalated from digital fraud to violent offenses as part of a “bottom-up social phenomenon,” according to industry reporting.
Partnerships with global companies like Yahoo highlight the trust Unit 221B has built in the cybersecurity community. “Yahoo and Unit 221B’s talented investigators have a strong track record of collaboration to identify the most sophisticated threats and have had numerous successful outcomes, including takedowns, arrests, and disruptions of infrastructure,” attested Sean Zadig, Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo. “It’s not enough to defend your perimeter—organizations need investigative partners who can go upstream, attribute, and disrupt.”
Chen-Contino’s path to cybersecurity was unconventional. After a career in enterprise marketing, she sought work that combined business impact with social mission. A lifelong martial-arts practitioner and self-defense instructor, she saw parallels between physical and digital defense.
“Martial arts teaches focus, awareness, and the discipline to face danger strategically,” she says. That mindset underpins Unit 221B’s philosophy: Anticipate threats, protect others, and move swiftly when harm is imminent. Several members of the company’s 20-person core team share martial-arts or tactical backgrounds, creating a culture of precision and calm-under-pressure.
That readiness has helped the company build credibility with enterprises and investigators alike. When a threat actor endangers employees or consumers, the team’s job doesn’t end with an alert—it ends when the perpetrator is identified, disrupted, or brought to justice.
Unit 221B leadership team including their investor. From left to right: May Chen-Contino-CEO, Christine Keung-general partner at J2 Ventures, Allison Nixon-chief research officer, and Lance James, chief innovation officer.
Ylva Everall. photographer and director.
Unit 221B’s evolution into a venture-backed platform marks more than a business milestone—it signals a shift in how threat intelligence is applied. The company’s proprietary technology preserves digital evidence, tracks emerging criminal ecosystems, and strengthens coordination among corporate and public-sector investigators who too often work in silos.
The $5 million seed round, led by J2 Ventures, gives the company resources to expand its platform and partnerships. Investors were drawn to Unit 221B’s dual mission—profit and protection—is a sign of what cybersecurity's future could look like.
“Unit 221B is solving a real pain point that many cybersecurity vendors overlook or are unable to solve,” explained Christine Keung, General Partner at J2 Ventures. “With experience in supporting federal prosecution, military cyber operations, Fortune 500 security teams, and world-renowned threat research, the Unit 221B team is uniquely equipped to expose and dismantle some of the most notorious online criminal groups. They’re the missing puzzle piece in threat disruption and attribution.”
Collaboration is at the firm’s core. Founder Lance James continues to lead innovation, while Chen-Contino drives growth. Its chief research officer, Allison Nixon—one of the industry’s leading threat hunters—has spent a decade mapping Scattered Spider’s activities, reshaping how law enforcement and corporations understand modern cybercrime networks.
Investigating cybercriminals who operate across digital and physical worlds carries real risk. Team members have faced harassment and attempted breaches. The company counters these threats through layered security protocols and tight control over what it discloses publicly.
Research shows women bring distinct strengths to cybersecurity leadership: broader problem-solving perspectives, balanced risk assessment, and a stronger emphasis on ethics and collaboration—qualities that foster innovation, resilience, and trust. Teams with women in leadership are also more likely to adopt proactive strategies, improve risk prioritization, and close the communication gaps that often lead to breaches.
Yet the industry remains largely male-dominated—only about 25% of the global cybersecurity workforce identifies as women, and even fewer hold executive roles, according to the World Economic Forum. That gap contributes to persistent talent shortages that cost the field innovation and capacity.
Chen-Contino attributes Unit 221B’s ability to rise above those barriers to its mission-first culture and inclusive leadership style. “Our work only matters if it makes people safer,” she emphasizes. “That’s what keeps everyone here going.”
As threats multiply, Chen-Contino believes the next era of cybersecurity will be defined by collaboration and conscience. Companies like Unit 221B are proving it’s possible to run a profitable business while advancing the public good—a model that fuses high-tech capability with human empathy.
“Cybercrime is about people, not just code,” she says. “It takes people who care enough to fight back.”
By pairing martial-arts discipline with data science, and empathy with enforcement, May Chen-Contino and her women-led cybersecurity team are demonstrating that the most powerful weapon in cybersecurity isn’t fear—it’s purpose.
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