Daniel Borges, Senior Red Team Engineer at CrowdStrike and author of Adversarial Tradecraft in Cybersecurity, brings his unique perspectives on learning, training, and failure to the pod. Collaboration is key in any purple team, and Dan believes collaboration comes from a place of knowledge and understanding— of ourselves, others, and the security tools we use every day. In this episode, Daniel talks about the process of writing a book as a cyber practitioner and where he sees the gaps in...

Jorge Orchilles, Chief Technology Officer at SCYTHE and Principal SANS Instructor, brings his expertise in purple teaming to the pod this week to talk about the uniquely human and the understandably technical parts of red and blue collaboration. As the Purple Team Ambassador at SANS, Jorge lives for all things purple team, pioneering the purple team framework used in different SANS courses. This week, Jorge talks about transitioning from tech to security and remembering we all are working for...

Angela Saccone, Community Manager at MetaCTF, Cyber Competitions Coordinator at Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, and Youtube Content Creator, joins the pod this week to talk about content of all kinds— from cyber competitions to online courses, k-pop dance videos to Python programming videos. Angela talks about her experiences from a red and a blue perspective, her drive to educate future cybersecurity practitioners, and why it's important to be transparent about the daily routine of cyber...

Eric Thomas, Detection & Response Engineer at HD Supply, brings his 15 years of experience in tech and cyber to the show this week to discuss collaboration— the most essential piece of the purple team formula. Eric walks us through his day-to-day routine as an engineer and provides us with his own unique insight into his current company's purple team process. Additionally, Eric teaches us about his unique approach to training future professionals with red and blue team skills and...

Nick Popovich, Hacker in Residence at PlexTrac, drops by to say hi to the Hacker Valley crew and give some insight into PlexTrac’s purple teaming services. Starting his career in offensive security as a pen tester, Nick gained great insight into purple teaming at companies like Optiv before he joined PLexTrac’s team of hackers. This week, Nick talks about PlexTrac’s unique software integrations, practical purple team collaboration, and differentiating between his experiences in red teaming...

Alexia Crumpton, Lead Cybersecurity Engineer at MITRE, joins the pod this week to cover leaving the old ways of cybersecurity behind to embrace the new generation. As both an engineer with MITRE and an educator for future cybersecurity practitioners, Alexia understands the complexity of new and emerging concepts in modern day cybersecurity— and she sees the confusion our current training methods are creating. Alexia helps us answer: How can we teach the purple team perspective to the next...

Bryson Bort, CEO and Founder of SCYTHE, dons his unicorn getup and joins the pod this week to talk about purple teaming and building businesses with community in mind. After founding GRIMM, his first company, Bryson wanted to carve a path of purple team innovation in cyber and created SCYTHE to do just that. Along the way, Bryson saw a need to further engage the cyber community in education and accessibility, and co-founded the ICS Village to encourage training opportunities and bridge...

In this episode, we’re joined by Maril Vernon. Maril is a purple team lead and co-host of the Cyber Queens Podcast. From a background in marketing, Maril’s natural curiosity and determination lead her to a new career in cybersecurity with the Air National Guard and beyond. She discovered that there isn't one job in the field, but many types to choose from. She landed her first job in cyber security by applying her soft skills and tenacity. Maril says never to be afraid to ask “stupid”...

In this episode, host Davin is joined by Tyson Supasatit, the Director of Product Marketing at Uptycs, to discuss how Upytcs is leveraging the MITRE D3FEND framework to further build upon their defensive capabilities. Tyson shares how Uptycs utilizes their robust use case library to demonstrate and provide creative solutions to their customers, compares the ATT&CK and D3FEND frameworks, and explores how Uptycs is leveraging the D3FEND framework to better implement defensive...

In this episode of Hacker Valley Blue, host Davin is joined by McKenna Yeakey, a Corporate Security Engineer at Plaid, to discuss the importance of human-centric security. Mckenna explores the “human” aspects of her job and why end user impact plays such a major role in her decision making. She shares how she leverages her natural curiosity and problem solving skills to perform the ins and outs of threat intel as well as her thoughts on The Great Resignation and skill gaps in cybersecurity....

In this episode of Hacker Valley Blue, host Davin is joined by Christopher Peacock, a Detection Engineer at SCYTHE, to discuss all things blue team. Christopher explores why asset management is a great security starting point for small organizations and why advanced persistent threats (APTs) are becoming increasingly difficult to defend against. He emphasizes the importance of red and blue team collaboration and takes time to share his career advice to those looking to break into the...

In this episode of Hacker Valley Blue, host Davin is joined by John Stoner and Andy Piazza to talk about the current state of cyber threat intelligence. John and Andy explore the gap that exists between technical team leads and security leadership, the urgent need for more entry and junior level hires in the field, as well as their favorite CTI resources and tools. Lastly, they share their tips and advice to those interested in breaking into cybersecurity.    Guest Bio:  John Stoner has...

In this episode of Hacker Valley Blue, Davin is joined by the founder and COO of MaxProd Technologies, Marcus Bowie, to share his story from helpdesk, to SOC analyst, to business owner. Marcus shares how he leveraged his resourcefulness and work ethic to fast track his on-the-job work experience. Marcus explores how he strived for success, built on his knowledge over time, and pivoted to new job opportunities along the way. He takes a deep dive into how he and blue teams stay sharp and...

How do you use threat intelligence to inform your decision making? In this episode, Davin and guest Katie Nickles take a deep dive into cyber threat intelligence. Katie explores the role threat intelligence plays in determining an organization’s security posture, how threat intel helps blue teams stay ahead of and anticipate emerging threats, and what the day-to-day of a Director of Intelligence looks like. Katie shares her passion for teaching and nurturing the next generation of...

When red and blue forces unite, everyone wins. Eric Belardo joins Davin in this episode to discuss the benefits of blue and red teams working together, the challenges blue teamers face, and the benefits of diversity of thought. Be sure to tune in to this impactful episode of Hacker Valley Blue: The Defenders. Guest Bio: Eric Belardo is a former CISO and experienced professional with over 30 years experience in Cyber Security Risk Management, Security Operations Center Management &...

Welcome to episode 1 of season 3 for Hacker Valley Blue! In this season, host Davin Jackson will be gathering the BEST blue team defenders in the field to share their expert advice, tips and strategies to up your defensive game in cybersecurity. In this episode Davin is joined by Lesley Carhart, an ICS Incident Response and hacker extraordinaire. The two take a deep dive into Lesley’s cyber background, address blue teaming common misconceptions, and where her “hacks for pancakes” tagline...

This is the finale of Know Thyself. What an incredible journey, we feel like this entire experience flew by so fast, we got to talk to so many incredible people about knowing yourself, knowing your team, knowing your tech stack, knowing your environment, and even knowing your story. Make your organization better make your security posture better, strive for impact, what are the most high leverage things that you can do today to make everybody's lives easier, or more safe, and then yield the...

In this masterclass of HVB season 2 we brought in a master story teller in Kevin Allison. The biggest thing is to get a person to understand, don't just summarize, don't just walk us through a Wikipedia like where you're just giving us a broad overview. And you're explaining; it’s important to remember sensory details that will help us see almost like movie scenes, what was happening between people. That is what brings the story alive. So that's a good case right there where the bones of the...

If want to get into computer security, you're going to learn to love it, you're going to have to be successful, because a lot of computer security isn't just about bits and bytes, it's really about effectively communicating what needs to be done to the right people. In this episode we have the incredible John Strand. Organizations need to become more proactive, and see where those weak spots are to protect themselves from something like ransomware. You need to run a pen test because you can...

In this episode, we brought in two exceptional guests that are no stranger to chaos. In fact, they've identified ways to engineer for chaos. In the studio, we have Aaron Rinehart, CTO, and founder at Verica. We also have Jamie Dicken, former manager of applied security at Cardinal Health and current director at Resilience. These two are also authors of Security Chaos Engineering. If you haven't read that book it's already out, you should check it out.  Chaos engineering is the technique of...

In this episode, we brought back our good friend Lenny Zeltser.  Lenny is Chief Information Security Officer at Axonius.  He's developed a mindset of looking at security components as building blocks to create a holistic security environment. To this day, even while operating as an executive, he has wisdom that anyone can learn from. Quite often, the less sexy aspects of information security are ignored, when in reality, you need to understand what resources you're supposed to protect,...

In this episode of Hacker Valley Blue, we brought in a guest who has been on a journey of transformation of self and technology.  Our guest is Chani Simms, managing director of Meta Defence Labs.  We talk about what is essential for cybersecurity.  If there was a magic box that could solve an issue, what problem would Chani want solved? “People!”  They need to be trained, and care, and have buy in.  They must be devoted to what they’re doing.  They need cultural awareness and support – it...

Know thy organization is key! Wise words from the powerful Marcus J. Carey.  Don’t be afraid to admit the bad stuff and be honest about the situation.  Most of the time people get fired because they are scared to admit the failure.   You have to build a tight network of people you trust who will be brutally honest with you.  You need those people who are going to tell you the truth.  Other people will see your superpowers before you do. Superman didn’t know he was different, but others saw...

Welcome to Hacker Valley Blue Season 2 “Know Thyself”. Instead of focusing on the enemy – threat intelligence and environment, we are focusing on knowing yourself and security stack. You need to know the business, but also the fundamentals of security landscape. Without the fundamentals, you cannot reach the level of success you desire. Getting laser sharp on computer networks and how computers speak to each other. Without understanding how each of the pieces work together, you cannot make...