Sam Washko

Sam Washko, Senior Software Engineer at Protect AI, specializes in developing tools to enhance the security of AI and machine learning systems. She led development of ModelScan, a scanner to detect attacks in ML model files. Her work on ModelScan includes the public open source tool and a more advanced version powering the core of Guardian, Protect AI’s flagship model scanner used as an official scanner for all models on Hugging Face. She holds a BS in Computer Science from Duke University, and prior to joining Protect AI, she was part of the Azure SQL Security Feature Team and Blue Team at Microsoft, designing cryptography and telemetry systems. She has a passion for connecting theory and problem solving with engineering to produce solutions that make computing more secure for everyone.