Learn the rules: The hacker mindset

Microsoft Research published a podcast conversation on November 3, 2026, in which Principal Technical Program Manager Weishung Liu interviews Research Manager Mike Walker, who leads work spanning AI, cybersecurity and large distributed systems. Walker previously ran DARPA's Cyber Grand Challenge, the all-machine hacking tournament now marking its 10th anniversary. The contest was a game of capture the flag fought by autonomous systems behind an air gap, with their creators able only to watch. Walker notes it relied on expert systems rather than machine learning, though he says similar tooling now serves as the harness around AI models.

Walker traces his path from a Columbus, Ohio childhood of Apple II tinkering and bulletin boards to a post-September 11 search for security talent, followed by 11 years of honing his skills, including in DEF CON's Capture the Flag. He argues that rules are social constructs and that security regimes collapse when they squander user trust.

Asked whether networked systems are safer, Walker says the challenge is as pressing as ever. In his view, security long rested on offensive scarcity, the known high cost of top-tier attacks, and AI models have upended that equation. He also calls attack and defense a single blended skill set, since tools are dual use depending on who holds the key.

His New Security Ventures team builds defensive tools, including Project Freta, which analyzes memory acquired from cloud hardware so attackers cannot tamper with the signals defenders rely on. The conversation also covers his ultra-endurance mountain biking, including the High Cascades 100.