Katilyst

Excited to announce that the 'League of Cyber Defense Champions' is joining SkillBit (formerly MetaCTF) as a Community Partner for our monthly Flash CTF. Dustin Lehr has been a cyber friend for a few years now, excited to formally partner on the awesome community that he and Stanley have put together. Also, if you haven't checked out their startup, Katilyst, you should! They're experts in building & managing enterprise security champions programs. To learn more and join the community, check them out here: https://lnkd.in/eV4cMKGi

We’re so happy to see when people get such value from our Workshops! 💙 #SecurityChampions #SecurityCulture

Last week, we celebrated our 5th birthday! 🎂 Five years ago, we set out with a clear mission: "Behavior Change at Scale." We saw a world where we could help transform company cultures by motivating every employee to be change agents. From our early days as security practitioners helping companies build their #SecurityChampion programs to building a platform that automates the tracking of real-world security behaviors and rewarding Champion engagement, our focus has always remained the same: Human-Focused Motivational Design. And now here we are, looking at the emerging "AI Era" with the same Mission in mind. Because when every employee can leverage AI to build and automate their business products and services, it's imperative to motivate them to do so with a quality-first mindset. We're grateful to have Dustin Lehr and Stanley Harris continuing to lead us as we look ahead to the next five years! And to our team: Thank you for your incredible contributions to our company and our customers, and for doing so while keeping our values and yours front and center along the way. 💙 We're so appreciative to our incredible customers who have trusted us to help them "level up" their security culture. Here’s to continuing to innovate at the intersection of GenAI, quality, and security. #Anniversary #SecurityCulture #BehavioralScience #ApplicationSecurity

BSidesSF is almost here! 🌉 🎉 After a full weekend of great talks and connecting with the community, join CMD+CTRL and Katilyst for a Happy Hour at The Grove. It’s the perfect way to unwind, meet fellow security leaders, and keep the #AppSec conversations going. ➡️ Spots are limited! Grab yours before they're gone: https://lnkd.in/gWWXTpuG. #BSidesSF #SecurityChampions #Networking #Cybersecurity

Expanding our reach. 🚀 We’re proud to partner with InfoSecMap to make our events easier to find and connect with the broader InfoSec community. InfoSecMap is your global go-to platform to explore the cybersecurity ecosystem. Discover conferences, CTFs, meetups, podcasts, and more, plus opportunities like call for papers, sponsors, and volunteers. Always community-first and free to use. See the platform in action: ➡️ https://infosecmap.com/ #InfoSec #CyberSecurity #Partnership #Community

Is a Security Champions program a "nice-to-have" or a data-backed requirement for success? 📊🤔 We're excited to have Katilyst Advisor and AppSec pioneer Sammy Migues provide his latest analysis of the BSIMM16 data, breaking down the numbers that separate the top 20% of security programs from the rest. The most striking takeaway? 96% of top-tier AppSec programs have a formal Security Champions program!!! Meanwhile, only 30% of bottom-tier programs do. Sammy shares keen insights, including: - Why "doing more with less" in a central team requires a "distributed" champion model. - The specific ratios of champions-to-developers that drive high performance. - Why building a program without a budget and a leader is a recipe for failure. Read the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/eUPH9GNr #ApplicationSecurity #BSIMM16 #SecurityChampions #CyberSecurity #DevSecOps

Stop Auditing. Start Questing. ⚔️ The biggest challenge in AppSec isn't the code, it's developer engagement! If your developers view security as a "slog" or a "tax," your culture is already at risk. In the February edition of the Security Champion Newsletter, we’re handing over the toolkit to change that narrative. We’re diving deep into the "Champion’s Playbook," focusing on how gamification and behavioral science can turn security from a blocker into a shared adventure. Inside this month's edition: 🐉 Slaying Cyber Dragons: Stanley Harris shares his framework for D&D-style threat modeling. 🔬 The Science of Motivation: Dustin Lehr joins the The Boring AppSec Community podcast to discuss Security Champions, human-focused motivation, and building bridges between security and development teams. 📖 Research Spotlight: How simple cybersecurity-focused dice games are outperforming traditional slide-deck training. 🙌 Community Growth: Welcoming InfoSecMap as an official partner to the The League of Cyber Defense Champions (LC/DC) ecosystem! The goal for 2026 is simple: Smarter Champions, not busier ones! #SecurityChampions #ApplicationSecurity #SecurityCulture #Gamification #DevSecOps #Community

Building a thriving Security Champion program is a marathon, not a sprint!🏃♂️💨 Many organizations launch with high energy, only to find that the day-to-day "living system" of community management (onboarding, tracking, and engaging) becomes a massive time sink for their security teams. At Katilyst, we don't just help you launch; we partner with you to run your program day-to-day so you can get your time back. Our Community Management service embeds a dedicated community manager into your team to handle: - Ongoing Engagement: Scheduling events and driving active discussions in Slack or Teams. - Motivational Touchpoints: Recognizing achievements and nudging progress to keep momentum high. - Administrative Support: Handling onboarding, offboarding, and meeting facilitation. - Behavior Tracking: Ensuring security actions are taken and reporting how they connect to your broader goals. Ready to scale your security culture without the administrative headache? Click the link in the comments to schedule time with our team! #SecurityChampions #ApplicationSecurity #SecurityCulture #CommunityManagement #CyberSecurity

Is your #SecurityChampion program ready for 2026? 🛡️💻 Security Champion programs are no longer just a "culture experiment", they are becoming the engine of modern AppSec strategy. In our first blog post of 2026, we’ve curated the top resources and trends defining the next era of developer-led security, featuring insights from: 📜 Katilyst’s 2025 State of Security Champions Report 🙍♀️ Tanya Janca (SheHacksPurple) on avoiding Champion "worst practices" ...And more! The shift is clear: we’re moving from generic awareness to technical integration and measurable engineering outcomes. Check out the blog (link in comments) for all the tips you need for a successful program! #ApplicationSecurity #DevSecOps #SecurityCulture #CyberSecurity

The response to our inaugural State of Security Champions Report was incredible - dozens of survey responses and hundreds of report downloads. It confirmed that Champion programs are the "satellites" scaling security culture across the globe. 🛡️🛰️ Now, it’s time to level up for the 2026 edition! We’re inviting Security Champion program owners and AppSec leaders to contribute to the State of Security Champions 2026 Survey. Your day-to-day experiences, from the technical wins in secure coding to the cultural hurdles of engagement, help build a vendor-neutral, data-backed benchmark for our entire industry. Add your voice and help us map the next stage of program maturity. It takes about 15 minutes, and we'll send an advance copy of the report to anyone who contributes data. The Survey link is in the comments! Thank you for your support, and please share this survey with other Champion program practitioners 🤝 #SecurityChampions #ApplicationSecurity #DevSecOps #SecurityCulture