Why I Traded Aerospace for the Front Lines of Cybersecurity

The “Apollo 13” mindset is the only way to stop modern, AI-powered fraudsters.

Gif: Inc.; Photos: Getty Images

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Not in the vague, poster-on-the-wall sense — I actually went to school for it. I have a degree in aeronautics and astronautics, and I spent the early part of my career working in aerospace. I was living the dream.

Then I got impatient.

Aerospace generally operates on timelines that would test anyone’s patience. You plan things that might not see the light of day for five or ten years. I wanted to build things that got into people’s hands faster. 

So I pivoted to software, found my way into cybersecurity about 25 years ago, and eventually landed in identity verification, where I’ve been ever since. But I didn’t leave aerospace empty-handed.

How Anthropic's Claude AI Became a Co-Founder

Bringing lessons to new opportunities

There’s a principle baked into aerospace engineering that doesn’t get discussed enough outside of that world: failure simply isn’t an option.

That sounds like a motivational poster, but it’s actually an engineering constraint. When you’re designing systems that put human beings in extraordinarily hostile environments, you don’t build for 99 percent reliability. You build for a standard so close to absolute 100 percent that the gap becomes almost philosophical. Because that remaining fraction of a percent is where terrible things happen.

I’ve carried that standard with me into every system I’ve built since, and it is urgently needed in identity verification and fraud prevention.

© Inc.com