Profile
Col. William “Dollar” Young, Jr is an accomplished strategist and leader with 28 years in the United States Air Force. He currently serves as the Special Advisor to the US Air Force Warfare Center Commander and is tasked with leading the standup of the Air Force’s new Spectrum Warfare Wing. He recently commanded the 53rd Electronic Warfare Group (EWG) at Eglin Air Force Base. The 53 EWG is responsible for the secure development, testing, and distribution for nearly all mission data software supporting USAF combat aircraft. The EWG consists of nearly 1,000 engineers, operators, analysts, intelligence, and maintenance personnel. The organization also provides multi-domain survivability readiness assessments for USAF fighter and bomber aircraft.
Colonel Young possesses a PhD in Engineering Systems from MIT. He is the creator of System-Theoretic Process Analysis for Security (STPA-Sec) and Functional Mission Analysis for Cyber (FMA-C). STPA-Sec is used internationally by industry to perform security analysis to support secure system engineering of new and existing systems. FMA-C is a modified version of STPA-Sec that is being applied across the Defense Department to improve mission assurance against cyber disruptions. The Air Force has directed that FMA be used as the baseline mission analysis methodology for all of its new Mission Defense Teams. Col. Young is also a Military Fellow and consultant for MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he works on new Security Engineering Analysis methods for the lab’s Cyber System Assessments Group. Col Young was also recently appointed as a Research Associate Professor in Syracuse University’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Prior to Group command, Col. Young led the establishment and served as the initial Director of the Air Force’s new Cyber College at Maxwell AFB.
Col Young was commissioned in 1991 after graduating from the United States Air Force Academy. He earned his wings from Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training (SUNT). Col Young is a Distinguished Graduate of the US Air Force Weapons School and is a 2006 graduate of the USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS). He is also a former Air Force Intern with rotations in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Air Force Operations Group, and the Air Force CHECKMATE Division. Col Young is an Instructor Electronic Warfare Officer with more than 2,400 flying hours in the EA-6B and B-52, including 240 combat hours during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. He is a guest lecturer at the Air Force Institute of Technology and several other institutions. Col Young has served on studies for Defense Department organizations including the Office of Net Assessment and the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Science Board Summer Study on Long Range Effects. Col Young has also consulted with industry on the application of his STPA-Sec methodology. Information Technology companies such as Akamai and even aerospace industry leaders such as Embraer have adopted STPA-Sec. Col Young was also a recognized contributor to NIST’s initial System Security Engineering guidelines, SP 800-160 Vol 1. Additionally, his STPA-Sec methodology was recently accepted and incorporated into DO-356A, the international standard for aircraft Airworthiness Security Methods.
Col Young assists several non-profit and charitable organizations in developing actionable strategies to address challenging issues through improved problem structuring and security engineering methods. His work has been profiled in national magazines and in 2008, he was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans.
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