# Jeff Williams

> Jeff Williams is a Baltimore-area application-security founder, engineer and executive who helped build OWASP into a global volunteer institution, created or led several of its most widely used projects, co-founded the consultancy Aspect Security, and later co-founded Contrast Security. His recurring idea is that security teams learn more when software is instrumented from within and observed while running, a thesis that now shapes his work on runtime application security, software transparency and AI-era risk.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Contrast Security
- **Organizations:** Contrast Security, Aspect Security, OWASP Foundation, Exodus Communications, Arca Systems, TRW Defense & Space Systems Group, MITRE
- **Education:** BA, Psychology and Computer Science, University of Virginia, MA, Human Factors, George Mason University, JD, cum laude, Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw, Georgetown University Law Center
- **Known for:** Helped create OWASP and served as its volunteer global chair for roughly eight years., Created or led widely adopted OWASP work including the OWASP Top 10, ESAPI, ASVS and the XSS Prevention Cheat Sheet., Co-founded and led Aspect Security, which Ernst & Young acquired in 2017.

## Career timeline

- **1988** — Worked as a human factors engineer at MITRE.
- **1989-1992** — Worked in human factors engineering at TRW Defense & Space Systems Group.
- **1992-1999** — Worked as a principal security engineer at Arca Systems.
- **1999-2002** — Led the global security practice at Exodus Communications and helped form an early internal application-security consulting team.
- **2001** — Helped create OWASP, the open project devoted to improving software security.
- **2002** — Co-founded Aspect Security and became its CEO.
- **2003-2011** — Served as OWASP's volunteer global chair.
- **2014** — Co-founded Contrast Security around an inside-out, instrumentation-based approach to application security.
- **2017** — Aspect Security was acquired by Ernst & Young.
- **2021-2023** — Won three masters basketball national or world titles; in 2022 he was also MVP and points leader.
- **2026** — Continued developing Contrast's runtime-security thesis, including the launch of CVE Shield.

## Achievements

- Helped create OWASP and served as its volunteer global chair for roughly eight years.
- Created or led widely adopted OWASP work including the OWASP Top 10, ESAPI, ASVS and the XSS Prevention Cheat Sheet.
- Co-founded and led Aspect Security, which Ernst & Young acquired in 2017.
- Co-founded Contrast Security and developed its application-instrumentation approach to security testing and protection.
- Chaired the author group of the Systems Security Engineering Capability Maturity Model and wrote most of the model, later published as an ISO standard.
- Was recognized as a JavaOne Rock Star in 2009 and received security-industry CTO and thought-leadership awards.
- Won masters basketball titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023, including 2022 MVP and points-leader honors.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Announced Contrast CVE Shield, extending the company's runtime approach to observing and blocking exploitation of supported CVEs while patches are prepared.
- **2026-04** — Discussed the widening gap between AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery and the time organizations take to remediate issues in a Techstrong TV interview.
- **2025-12** — Argued in an interview that software products need transparency and accountability comparable to labels and ratings in other industries.
- **2025-09** — Explained how runtime context can distinguish reachable, exploitable problems from scanner backlogs and support precise remediation.

## Links

- Website: https://www.contrastsecurity.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/planetlevel
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/planetlevel
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/contrastsecurity
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contrastsec/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jeff-williams
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28