LAS VEGAS— When Bailey Bickley took the stage at Black Hat, she shared a photo that stood in stark contrast to the polished glass-and-steel image of a typical defense contractor: a small, cluttered office with taxidermy on the walls.

A bison head, a deer head, and almost the entire front half of a water buffalo were visible in the workspace, which also showed a triple-monitor setup with filing cabinets, a copy machine, and plenty of figurines. No other computers could be seen.

“This is a real picture of one such [defense industrial base] company. We went to visit their headquarters,” said Bickley, who leads defense-industry-protection efforts at the NSA Cybersecurity Collaboration Center. “And this company produces custom radio-frequency solutions for DOD to use in very austere location

See Full Page