HackerOne , Synack , and Dark Wolf , the organization is embracing the hacker community . Each of those companies has done large scale events , hacking the Air Force Cloud in addition to other public facing websites for the Air Force . “ In the past , hackers looked at the Department of Defense and considered it a great prize to hack . But most people didn ’ t try it lightly because it ’ s also a great way to get arrested ,” explains Knausenberger .“ We ’ ve started to embrace the hacking community because although we have some great cybersecurity frameworks in place that lots of people benchmark against , we wanted new partners who approach problems in different ways and who could explore new threat vectors in a creative way . It ’ s been invaluable - we ’ ve learned a great deal and it ’ s been a wonderful partnership .”
Knausenberger sees the true value in encouraging hackers to cause as much havoc as possible and believes it is mutually rewarding . “ I feel much more comfortable if I ’ ve had a hacker team come in and see what they can break without any rules , than if someone ’ s just gone through the security checklist ,” she explains . “ Real world hackers don ’ t follow our checklist . We ’ d rather have friendly hackers who we ’ re paying to break systems , and that allows us to fix things as they find it . Our systems are stronger for it , and the hackers love the chance to legally break into national security systems .”
While having much success today , Knausenberger understands how critical it is that any cultural change implemented is built to last . “ I ’ m very aware that any change I make must be something that can last after I ’ m gone ,” she explains . “ I didn ’ t join the Air Force intending to make a career of it – but my intent was to make a huge and lasting impact . Therefore , it ’ s very important that the things that we do aren ’ t just personality dependent . Not all software has to be sustainable . There are some things that we use once and we throw away ; however , it ’ s vital that the organizational structures that support an innovation culture have staying power . It ’ s important that we ’ re able to do the simple things well and that we put the right processes in place to replicate those early successes at scale . We have a dream team in place right now – from senior
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