© Copyright 2026 38North Security
Austen Summers
Principal Architect, NorthWatch
I'm a cybersecurity engineer and software architect focused on federal cloud security and compliance. My experience ranges from assessing cloud environments for the FAA to building the software that automates much of that work.
At 38North Security, I led the team that designed and built Northwatch, our FedRAMP 20x compliance suite. It helps cloud service providers earn and maintain the authorization they need to sell to the federal government by bringing continuous evidence collection, automated control validation, and vulnerability evaluation into a single platform. Providers can run it hosted by us or inside their own cloud. I also built Arcanum, our internal AI platform for working with controlled client data. Beyond the software, I developed our vulnerability risk scoring model for FedRAMP 20x and an overlay that extends its Key Security Indicators to agentic AI.
Before 38North, I spent three years at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, advancing from research assistant to secure computing engineer. I reviewed systems against NIST standards, helped design and operate GTRI's enterprise WAN, built DevSecOps pipelines, hardened research infrastructure, and automated deployments so nobody had to do things the hard way twice.
I've written on FedRAMP 20x, released open-source deployment tools, and mentored students through Kennesaw State University's Cybersecurity Capstone Mentorship program. I do my best work where the problems are complex, the stakes are real, and there's always something new to figure out.