John Hammond on Security Research, Storytelling, and Deception for Defenders

In this Simply Defensive episode, hosts Josh Mason and Wade Wells interview John Hammond, a Huntress security researcher, YouTuber, and educator, about his career path and defensive research. Hammond explains he has never worked as a penetration tester, SOC analyst, or detection engineer, instead “falling into” security research through hands-on Capture the Flag work and building cyber threat emulation course content, earning Offensive Security’s OSCE3 bundle recognition. He discusses why storytelling and communication are critical for translating attacker tradecraft into actionable defenses, emphasizing understanding the attack chain to identify places to break it. He recommends building a public portfolio of write-ups and notes, and says multiple creators covering the same topic can still provide value through different explanations. The conversation also highlights endpoint deception and honeypots, challenges of reversing compiled binaries versus script-based malware, and his advice to document thoroughly in shared organizational knowledge bases.

00:00 S6E2: John Hammond on Security Research, Storytelling, Deception, and Getting Hired in Cybersecurity
01:27 Meet John Hammond
01:57 Security Researcher Life
04:43 OffSec Certs Explained
06:55 From CTF to Research
08:47 Storytelling in Cyber
12:10 Turning Attacks to Defense
15:19 Getting Hired as Researcher
16:48 Portfolio and Honeypots
19:05 Make the Video Anyway
21:40 Alternate Data Streams Nerdout
23:36 CTFs Then and Now
24:28 Life Shifts Priorities
25:44 Beyond CTFs Next Trend
26:52 Deception Meets Detection
28:48 Honeypots and Program Maturity
31:13 Malware Reversing Boss Fights
35:09 Blue Team Advice Document Everything
37:51 Where to Find John and Training
38:49 Wrap Up and Farewell

In this episode of Simply Defensive, Josh Mason and Wade Wells sit down with Jason Haddix — CISO veteran, AI security thought leader, and founder of Arcanum Information Security — for a wide-ranging conversation on where AI is actually headed in cybersecurity, and what blue teamers need to know right now.

Jason shares what he's learned from running AI scaling assessments inside major enterprises, why most organizations are still in the early stages of AI adoption, and how the industry needs to stop thinking about AI security like traditional web app security. He breaks down the stages of AI adoption (from custom bots to agents), explains why input validation is a losing game for LLM security, and makes the case for classifiers, guardrails, and LLM-based routing as the real defense-in-depth play for AI systems.

Wade and Jason also revisit the Red Blue Purple AI course, talk through how RAG and context engineering are transforming what's possible for blue teamers, and discuss why the credential leakage problem is still one of the biggest vectors defenders aren't taking seriously enough.

Topics covered:

• Why CTI struggles to prove value — and where it actually matters most
• Stealer logs, credential leakage, and when rolling an account isn't enough
• AI adoption stages: custom bots → RAG → agents
• Why SOAR skepticism is a preview of AI hesitancy
• Context engineering vs. prompt engineering
• Defending AI systems: prompt-level protections, classifiers, guardrails, and LLM routing
• When does a prompt become IP?
• Jason's advice for blue teamers: embrace AI as a tool, find your annoying tasks, and start chipping away

Connect with Jason Haddix:

• Twitter/X: @jhaddix
• Arcanum Information Security: arcanam-sec.com
• GitHub (free tools & resources): ARCanum Information Security on GitHub
• Newsletter: Executive Offense by Jay Haddix

Resources mentioned:

• Red Blue Purple AI Course (ARCanum)
• Flare (threat intelligence / credential monitoring): flare.io
• Detections.ai

Connect with the Hosts:

• Josh Mason: linkedin.com/in/joshuacmason
• Wade Wells: linkedin.com/in/wadingthrulogs

In this episode of Simply Defensive, Josh Mason and Wade Wells sit down with Josh Stroschein — aka The Cyber Yeti — a former professor turned reverse engineer now working on one of the largest malware analysis teams in the world.

Josh shares his unconventional path through .NET development, credit card processing security, and academia before landing at Google. He opens up about teaching reverse engineering while learning it himself, building educational CTFs, and the realities of making it as a full-time reverse engineer in an industry where those roles are rare.

What you'll hear:

🔹 From pre-law to pilot training to PhD in cybersecurity

🔹 How teaching RE forced him to truly master it

🔹 Life inside Google's FLARE team (via Chronicle → Mandiant)

🔹 Flareon CTF — the RE challenge that's run for 12 years

🔹 A wild Black Hat NOC story involving an infected Mac and Atomic Stealer

🔹 Using AI to build malware samples for training labs

🔹 Why going low-level is the best advice for blue teamers

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:50 Josh's Connection to Dr. Gerald Auger

02:00 The Non-Traditional Path: Pre-Law, Pilot Training & .NET Dev

05:00 Getting Into Security at a Credit Card Processor

07:00 Teaching Reverse Engineering at Dakota State

10:00 Flareon CTF and Educational CTF Design

14:00 Is Reverse Engineering Offensive or Defensive?

17:00 How Rare Are Full-Time RE Roles?

21:00 The Path to Google: Chronicle, Mandiant & FLARE

25:00 Learning Through Teaching and YouTube Content

28:00 Black Hat NOC Story: Catching Atomic Stealer Live

33:00 Using AI to Create Malware Training Samples

37:00 Building a Defang Tool (and .NET Nightmares)

40:00 Advice for Blue Teamers: Go Low-Level

🎧 Find Josh Stroschein:

→ Website: https://www.thecyberyeti.com

→ YouTube: The Cyber Yeti

→ Podcast: The Cyber Yeti Podcast

👥 Connect with the Hosts:
→ Josh Mason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuacmason/
→ Wade Wells: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadingthrulogs/
→ Swimlane: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swimlane

🎙️ Listen on Your Favorite Platform:
→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72QTocT5FSTSPV7o1UcMS4
→ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simply-defensive/id1773806182
→ Full Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4Q-ttyNIRAr6DVrsASx1-Fv-TsooJ3M4

👍 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share with your fellow defenders. Every week, Josh Mason and Wade Wells bring you practical, no-fluff conversations with cybersecurity professionals who are doing the work.

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