Mike Walker is a principal researcher at Microsoft working on security AI. Before joining Microsoft, he led DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge, a two-year $58M contest to construct and compete the first prototypes of reasoning cyberdefense AI. In 2016 at the DEF CON hacking contest, these prototypes took their first flight into the game of hackers, Capture the Flag (CTF), landing zero-day exploits and writing patches in a fully autonomous battle.
 
Mr. Walker has worked in a policy advisory role, testifying to the President’s Commission on Cybersecurity and serving as a contributor and panelist to CSIS’s Surviving on a Diet of Poisoned Fruit. Before joining DARPA he worked as a research lab leader and principal vulnerability researcher focusing on tools to amplify vulnerability research abilities with the power of supercomputer automation. He has played in DEF CON CTF finals, coached CTF teams, and built CTFs throughout his career.
  
He received his BS in computer science from Case Western Reserve University.