Katie Paxton-Fear’s path into ethical hacking began with curiosity about how computer systems work. In a January 6, 2026, interview with SecurityWeek’s Kevin Townsend, she described how that curiosity developed from online games and programming into vulnerability research—and explained why she draws a firm moral line against malicious hacking.
How Katie Paxton-Fear got into hacking
Townsend’s interview traces Paxton-Fear’s early interest to Neopets, an online game that led her to learn C++ and build websites. She later explored reverse engineering and developed private servers for online games. She acknowledged copyright implications in that earlier activity; it should not be confused with authorized security testing. Read the SecurityWeek interview.
Her first reported vulnerability discoveries came at a HackerOne bug bounty event she attended while pursuing her PhD. Townsend says she found two vulnerabilities there and received a $1,000 bounty. At a later event in Las Vegas during DEF CON, she found two more, according to the interview. These are details reported in the profile, not independently verified figures.
What she says autism has to do with her approach
Paxton-Fear identifies as autistic and described computers’ predictability as something that suited her. She told Townsend, “Life with autism is like living life without the instruction manual that everyone else has.” She also said, “I think, especially for autistic people, computers are kind of autistic themselves. Computers have a very predictable answer – a one or a zero. There is no grayscale area,” describing her own perception of computers and ambiguity.
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Those comments are personal testimony, not a clinical description or evidence that autism causes hacking. The interview does not establish that her experience represents autistic people generally, nor does it provide population statistics about autism and hacking or vulnerability discovery.
Where her career and teaching stood in the 2026 interview
Townsend reports that Paxton-Fear went on to make videos teaching people how to find vulnerabilities and worked in both industry and academia. At the interview’s publication on January 6, 2026, she was described as a principal security research engineer at Harness following Traceable’s acquisition. The profile also says she continued teaching ethical hacking one day a week. These employment and schedule details describe the time of publication and may have changed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How she draws the moral line
Paxton-Fear’s position in the interview is categorical: she rejects malicious hacking, including hacking justified as patriotic during wartime. That is her stated moral view, not a universal rule or legal analysis. In practical security work, technical ability alone does not make an activity ethical or authorized; permission and purpose matter. The interview is a personal profile, not legal guidance.
She connected her interest in hacking to recognizing a way of thinking in Casey Ellis, saying, “I look at a system and I want to know how it works.” The interview presents that drive to understand systems alongside her rejection of using hacking to cause harm.
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