Security Champion Blog

A Security Champions program turns employees from various teams into security advocates and liaisons. They act as a force multiplier, bridging the gap between security professionals and the broader organization. But as your program grows, how do you keep these champions motivated and their efforts visible? The answer lies in Engagement Design.

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.

Hosted by Semgrep and led by Tanya Janca (one of our advisors and a close friend to Katilyst), the panel explored the critical elements of creating and maintaining a successful Champions program.