Security Champion Blog

Last month at DEF CON, Katilyst's CEO and co-founder, Stanley Harris, had the privilege of facilitating a 2-hour training workshop on Security Champion Program Design along with Tanya Janca. Bringing together practitioners, leaders, and curious first-timers from across the security and engineering community, our goal was simple: give attendees a clear, actionable path to build (or rebuild) a Security Champion program that truly works.

At Katilyst, we’ve found that the biggest barrier to strong threat modeling isn’t technical knowledge—it’s engagement. Even with the best frameworks (STRIDE, PASTA, etc.), teams tune out if threat modeling becomes a rote checklist. That’s why we set out to transform it into an epic quest. Inspired by tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, our approach gives security champions the tools to lead fun, collaborative, and genuinely productive threat modeling sessions.

Points aren’t about gamification. They’re about giving visibility to the invisible, and tracking the impact of security champions in a way that celebrates their contributions - without adding overhead. A good points system should reflect your culture and drive the behaviors you actually want to see.