Microsoft Research's Mike Walker on hacker mindset and the all-machine hacking competition
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Microsoft Research research manager Mike Walker discusses on the podcast how hacker culture shaped his career. He says he once led DARPA's Cyber Grand Challenge, a project that demonstrated AI systems capable of autonomously finding and patching software vulnerabilities, and this year marks the tenth anniversary of the competition. Walker suggests that every time a security system asks users for information, it is consuming trust, and that effective security depends on understanding trust and context. He also discusses what competitive hacking reveals about teamwork and collective intelligence.
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- Microsoft ResearchLearn the rules: The hacker mindset
In a Microsoft Research Podcast conversation with Weishung Liu, research manager Mike Walker describes how hacker culture led him to a career in cyber defense, including leading DARPA's Cyber Grand Challenge, the first all-machine hacking tournament, which marked its 10th anniversary in 2026. He reflects on why effective security depends on understanding trust and context, what competitive hacking taught him about teamwork, and whether today's networked systems are safer than a decade ago.
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