[7][8][9][10][11] Born in New York City, Goldwasser obtained her bachelor's degree in 1979 in mathematics and science from Carnegie Mellon.

[12] In 2005, Goldwasser was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to cryptography, number theory, and complexity theory, and their applications to privacy and security,[13] and in 2006, Berkeley awarded her its Computer Science Distinguished Alumni Award.

[14] Since November 2016, Goldwasser has been the chief scientist and co-founder of Duality Technologies, a US-based start-up which offers secure data analytics using advanced cryptographic techniques.

Goldwasser is a co-inventor of zero-knowledge proofs, which probabilistically and interactively demonstrate the validity of an assertion without conveying any additional knowledge, and are a key tool in the design of cryptographic protocols.

[20] Her work in number theory includes the invention with Joe Kilian of primality proving using elliptic curves.

[21] Goldwasser is also a lead on Project CETI, an interdisciplinary initiative for translating the communication of sperm whales.

In 2001 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2002 she gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing.