Moussouris, HackerOne chief policy officer, leaves startup

The HackerOne executive who helped engineer the Department of Defense’s “Hack the Pentagon” pilot project has left the San Francisco startup.

Katie Moussouris, who advised companies, regulators and legislators on the merits of rewards systems for security researchers, said she departed in mid-March — before HackerOne announced that it was facilitating such programs for Uber and the Defense Department.

“It is definitely going to be better for me to pursue my own consulting, and help businesses directly with their vulnerability coordination and bug bounty programs,” said Moussouris, a former Microsoft security strategist who helped launch the tech giant’s bug bounty program in 2013.

In an emailed statement, HackerOne on Tuesday confirmed that Moussouris had left the company and praised her passion.