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Exploring the nexus of cybersecurity defense and humanity with the mind of a hacker.
Episodes
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
This episode of Hacker Valley Studio podcast’s Hacker Valley Red Series features guest Maurice Ashley, a chess grandmaster and author of Chess for Success. Maurice is a chess guru and has been playing it ever since his high school years. He is currently involved in commentating for chess events, teaching chess, and training national chess champions. In this episode, Maurice and the hosts talk about Maurice’s chess journey along with some parallels between chess and cyber security.
The hosts, Ron and Chris, start off the interview by pointing out one parallel between chess and cybersecurity: the art of training. Maurice responds by sharing about the rigorous training of chess, and of the different strategies and techniques that must be learned. He also takes some time to explain his own journey with training in chess and how it progressed through the years. In high school, he started playing with his brother, and then moved to playing in more formal settings with more challenging opponents. This eventually led to earning the title of chess grandmaster. Being the first black male to receive the Chess Grandmaster title, Maurice speaks on how this accomplishment inspired others to reach for their goals.
2:49 - Maurice introduces himself
6:46 - Maurice’s journey of becoming a grandmaster
9:20 - The impact of Exposure
11:07 - Maurice tells of the significance of being the first black male to earn the title of Chess Grandmaster.
15:00 - Maurice tells of the influence of his family in earning the title of Chess Grandmaster.
17:58 - Maurice speaks on practicing for performance and how it relates to cyber security.
22:00 -The parallels between an unbeatable chess player and an unhackable system
25:18 - Maurice explains blitz and bullet chess and how it relates to cyber security.
33:25 - Maurice gives some tips on how to get started playing chess.
37:04 - Maurice gives advice on how to reach greatness.
Links:
To learn more about Maurice Ashley, visit https://mauriceashley.com
Follow Maurice Ashley on Twitter and Instagram
Learn more about Maurice Ashley’s book Chess for Success and his app Learn Chess with Maurice Ashley
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
On this episode of Hacker Valley Studio, hosts Ron and Chris speak with Lisa Jiggetts, founder of Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu. Their conversation covers Lisa’s background, her current work and her involvement as a penetration tester.
Lisa says she’s always been a techie who loved gadgets, breaking things and trying to understand how they fit together. She knew she wanted to work with computers, but wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly. Out of high school she joined the military working in IT, but knew she wanted to be a hacker. Eventually, she made her way to pentesting apps and systems in the cloud. Lisa loves the game aspect of pentesting and the red team. She says she enjoys the challenge of trying to get into the box and “level up,” trying more and more ways in before reaching out for help.
2:12 - The episode and guest are introduced.
3:50 - Lisa gives an overview of her background.
10:00 - Lisa explains her breaker mentality.
15:57 - What made Lisa commit to pentesting and the red team?
20:34 - Lisa discusses the founding of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu.
29:44 - Lisa’s advice for listeners interested in the red team and cyber security.
Links:
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast’s Hacker Valley Red series, this time featuring guest Ted Harrington. Ted is an Executive Partner at ISE Security, an author, and a professional speaker. Hosts Ron and Chris speak with Ted about the concept of unhackability, his experience in the security field, an interesting story of an attack in real time, and more!
To start off the interview, Ted shares about his background. He currently works for a consulting firm that focuses on ethical hacking and aims to help companies solve their security problems, and his interest in the work of hacking goes back to a car-hacking experience in which he and his colleagues were inspired by a claim of unhackability and disproved the claim.
1:50 - The episode features Ted Harrington; listeners are introduced to him and the episode ahead.
3:05 - The conversation begins with Ted’s background.
7:21 - The group considers the term “unhackable,” closing attack vectors, and breakers starting as builders.
14:02 - “Think like a hacker.”
20:02 - Ted explains some lessons from real-life work, focusing on a cryptocurrency wallet example.
25:13 - What should people learn and do?
30:38 - Where do Ted’s energy and motivation come from, and what is the most interesting part of his work?
34:32 - Ted offers advice and shares what he hopes his legacy in the field will be.
Links:
Connect with Ted on LinkedIn or email him at ted@ise.io
Learn about Ted’s book, Hackable
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
On this episode of Hacker Valley Studio, hosts Ron and Chris speak with Alissa Knight, author of the book Hacking Connected Cars and self described “recovering hacker.” Their conversation covers content creation, API’s and hacking cars.
Alissa grew up in Seattle, Washington where there was a big art scene. She began building her own computers and running her own boards at an early age. She says a lot of people don’t know that she started out in the BBS scene back in the 90’s. At seventeen she hacked into a government network and was arrested. Eventually, the charges were dropped on a technicality and she went on to work for the US Intelligence Community in cyber warfare.
2:08 - The episode and guest are introduced.
3:19 - Alissa gives an overview of her background.
6:29 - How Alissa’s career began.
10:16 - Do you have to program to hack?
14:26 - What led Alissa to hacking cars?
24:55 - Alissa explains what people get wrong about the red team.
29:25 - Alissa answers the question, “is there an unhackable device?”
36:54 - How KnightTV came into being.
41:08 - Alissa gives her advice on where to start getting into cyber security
Links:
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter
Follow Alissa Knight on Twitter
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
This episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast continues the Hacker Valley Red series by featuring Alex Rice. Alex is the CTO and co-founder of HackerOne, and he joins hosts Ron and Chris for a conversation about such topics as the beginnings of the researcher community, bug bounty, and the term “hacker.”
Alex first shares about his background leading up to what he’s doing today. He worked as a developer, and then about 20 years ago, he moved into the security field. Part of his career trajectory was motivated by his frustration over a lack of feedback loops, and he explains both how HackerOne came to be and some details about bug bounty. Ron and Chris are particularly interested in why HackerOne has the term “hacker” in it, even though the term can carry with it negative connotations (however inaccurate they may be). Alex clarifies that he and his colleagues do not want to beat around the bush, but want to be part of the work of dismantling false stereotypes about hacking.
1:34 - Listeners are introduced to Alex Rice and the conversation to come.
2:41 - What is Alex’s background, and what is he doing today?
7:45 - Alex explains why the term “hacker” is included in his company’s name.
10:45 - The group considers cease and desist orders, bug bounty community, and gamification of security and hacking.
18:11 - Alex addresses the reality of teenagers making millions through bug bounty, as well as the personas of hacking outliers.
22:43 - Alex talks bug bounty, COVID-19, and writing reports.
25:41 - Is unhackability possible? If not, what’s the closest we can get to it?
30:02 - The conversation concludes with Alex’s thoughts on the future, hobbies, and encouragement to people in bug bounty looking to continue in the field.
Links:
Connect with Alex Rice on Twitter
Connect with the Bug Bounty Community at hackerone.com/hacktivity
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
On this episode of Hacker Valley Studio, hosts Ron and Chris speak with Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security and Chair of the Women in Security and Privacy Board. Their conversation covers everything from neuroscience to spearfishing and human’s place in cyber security.
Rachel is a human hacker, also known as a social engineer, and she begins the episode by explaining her background in social engineering and experience in the non profit space. She credits her success in the field to her background in neuroscience and behavioral psychology as well as training in improv.
1:59 - Rachel Tobac and today’s episode of Hacker Valley Red is introduced.
8:50 - What are the skills needed to become a social engineer?
10:51 - Rachel leads Ron and Chris through an improv exercise.
13:59 - Rachel shares where she thinks technology is headed.
20:20 - Rachel shares the scariest part of social engineering hacks.
25:29 - Rachel’s key takeaways.
34:11 - Rachel is looking toward 2020 election security.
Links:
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, hosts Ron and Chris introduce the podcast’s new series: Hacker Valley Red. After the previous season highlighted the defensive side of cyber security, this season will focus on the other side of the coin - the offensive side. Ron and Chris spend this initial episode talking about their experience with the offensive side of cyber security, what listeners can look forward to hearing in the episodes ahead, and what sorts of questions experts will field throughout the season.
As the conversation gets underway, Ron and Chris introduce the season, which will cover such topics as the background and personas of red teamers, information about red teaming technology, misconceptions from the blue side, and what red teaming really looks like. The hosts then share their own backgrounds in red teaming. While they both had some prior experience with red teaming, they learned a lot through hosting the episodes in the season. As they introduce the series ahead, Ron and Chris touch on the social side of red teaming, analogies by which red teaming can be explained, Ron’s exploitation video, the value and use of red teaming within organizations, the shared community of red and blue teaming, purple team engagement, the concept of unhackability, and more.
In the episodes ahead, Ron and Chris will ask guests what other aspects of life and technology help them with red teaming, and there are particular topics from the episodes that they are most excited to consider with listeners. These topics include the issue between blue and red teams, the concept of a hacker, the idea of unhackability, and different perspectives of paths into the field of red teaming and to mastery within it. Ron and Chris conclude their introductory conversation with two lessons they hope listeners will take from the season: the lesson that creation is a process and that the best red teamers learn to love the process, and the lesson that both red and blue team members are on the same team.
0:48 - The podcast is now moving to the other side of the coin: the offensive side of cyber security.
2:48 - Ron and Chris share their respective backgrounds in red teaming.
7:25 - What other aspects of life and technology help guests with red teaming?
10:50 - Chris asks about Ron’s exploitation video.
12:52 - The hosts address the iterative improvement of an organization’s security posture.
18:14 - Ron and Chris talk about purple team engagement.
21:12 - Is unhackability real or possible?
24:53 - Hacking can have to deal with a human, rather than a device or application.
26:34 - What key takeaways do the hosts want listeners to take from the season?
28:10 - What do Ron and Chris want listeners to learn?
Links:
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter