Security
Offense Scales with Compute. Defense Scales with Committees.
Why AI is widening the attacker-defender gap faster than anything we've built to close it — and what that actually means for the next decade of security.
Casey Ellis
Hacker, founder, advisor, and pioneer of crowdsourced security. Founder of Bugcrowd, co-founder of disclose.io, principal of Tall Poppy Group. Board member at SRLDF.
Security
Bug Bounties in the Age of AI
As AI accelerates the offense-defense asymmetry, bug bounties and vulnerability disclosure remain essential. Casey Ellis on the future of bug bounties, the evolving threat landscape, and how disclose.io and the SRLDF protect the researchers keeping us safe.
Security
Vulnerability economics
* Every vulnerability costs something to put there. * Every vulnerability costs something to discover. * Every vulnerability costs something to fix. * The exploitation of every vulnerability has a value associated with it.
Policy
No More Free-ish Bugs
There's a fresh conversation happening about the distinction between bug bounty programs and vulnerability disclosure programs. This is an area where the distinction between a bug bounty program (cash or cash equivalent proactively offered to the public) and a vulnerability disclosure program (which can optionally offer a thank-you
Building
Next things...
Last Saturday Jan 31 was my last day "inside the tent" at Bugcrowd.
Building
Bugcrowd 2013 to 2025 — People and Places
Security
For the Love of the Game: DistrictCon's Year 1 Junkyard
Notes from judging DistrictCon's Junkyard Year 1 — a Pwn2Own-style exploit contest targeting end-of-life devices. Disco balls, DNA sequencers, gym treadmills, and self-propagating game worms. Includes exploit chain diagrams for all eleven talks.
Thinking
2026 security predictions
2026 cybersecurity forecast: China's PLA centenary looms, AI turns anyone into a malware developer, and economic pressure pushes more people toward cybercrime. Shift-left finally start working—but only for modern code. The rest of the internet? A triage trash fire.
Thinking
2025 security predictions retrospective
This time of year, everywhere you see, security guys like me are sharing our hot takes for the year ahead. However, reflecting on the past year is equally important. I like to see how my previous predictions held up and how things actually played out.
Thinking
First Principles: Bad guys are humans, they're creative and driven, and they don't quit.
Here's the bigger question: If we do finally achieve 100% success in automating cyber defense, will the "bad guys" pack their stuff up and go home?
Personal
Hacker Summer Camp 2025 — People, Places, and Things
A little photo diary of Hacker Summer Camp 2025.
Thinking
Founders Helping Founders: When Known Vulnerabilities are Life or Death
On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Casey on the early economics of paying people to hack companies, criminal creativity, and why founders need to fix their known vulnerabilities.