Hacker Valley Red By cover art

Hacker Valley Red

By: Hacker Valley Media
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  • Summary

  • Exploring the nexus of cybersecurity defense and humanity with the mind of a hacker.
    Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • Keeping It Open Source with Metasploit’s HD Moore

    Keeping It Open Source with Metasploit’s HD Moore
    Jul 1 2022
    This season of Hacker Valley Red wraps up with another interview of an incredible offensive cybersecurity legend. Known first and foremost for his work founding Metasploit and his recent work co-founding Rumble, HD Moore joins the show this week to talk about his journey from spiteful hacker to successful founder. HD walks through the history of Metasploit, the motivation behind their coding decisions, his opinions on open source software, and the excitement of exploration and discovery. Timecoded Guide: [04:57] Catching up on HD’s career from his hacking exploits in the ‘90s through his founding of Metasploit to his recent activities with Rumble [11:41] Getting personal with the feelings and takeaways from a project as successful and impactful on the cyber industry as Metasploit [18:52] Explaining HD’s personal philosophies around accessible education and the risk of sharing vulnerable information publicly  [25:39] Diving deep into the technical stories of HD’s path of discovery and exploration during his time at Metasploit [31:14] Giving advice for future founders and hackers looking to make a legendary impact on the cybersecurity community   Sponsor Links: Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and PlexTrac for bringing this season of HVR to life! Life is complex. But it’s not about avoiding challenges or fearing failure. Just ask Simone Biles — the greatest gymnast of all time. Want to learn more about how Simone controls complexity? Watch her video at axonius.com/simone PlexTrac, the Proactive Cybersecurity Management Platform, brings red and blue teams together for better collaboration and communication. Check them out at plextrac.com/hackervalley   What were some of the trials, tribulations, and successes of Metasploit?  Although Metasploit has had a lasting impact on the cyber world, HD Moore is not afraid to admit that part of Metasploit existed out of spite for critics, employers, and gatekeepers in the cybersecurity industry. In terms of trials and tribulations, HD saw a great deal of criticism come from his peers and from professionals ahead of him in the industry, often displaying rudeness towards the quality of the exploits and Metasploit’s audience of young hackers. Later, HD says that a surprising and amusing side effect of his success with the project was watching employers and peers go from criticizing to lifting up his work with Metasploit and attributing success of many hacking professionals to its creation. “When we started the Metasploit project, we really wanted to open up to everybody. We wanted to make sure that, even if you barely knew how to program, you can still contribute something to Metasploit. So, we did our best to make it really easy for folks to get in touch with us, to submit code.”   Where does your philosophy land today on giving information freely? HD has heard the same opinions many professionals that teach and give information freely have heard: “You’re making it easier for people to use this information the wrong way.” Instead of considering the worst possible outcomes of making hacking accessible, HD chooses to acknowledge the importance of accessible education and publicly provided information. According to HD, if someone is creating and teaching content to the next generation of red teamers, that content is theirs to use. Whether they’re a physical pen tester teaching lock picking or a hacker disclosing a vulnerability, what they choose to share with others has to be based on personal moral code and what others do with that information is up to them.  “It comes down to: You do the work, you own the result. If you're teaching people how to do stuff, great, they can do what they want. You can decide to do that, you can decide not to do that, but it's your decision to spend your time training people or not training them.”   Is it possible to be a CEO, or a co-founder, and stay technical? The downside of success in the cybersecurity industry is often stereotyped as losing the opportunity to be a hands-on hacker. However, for HD, his success has allowed him to do the exact opposite and instead prioritize his time to be technical. HD believes strongly in the ability to make this happen through proper delegation of duties, incorporating new leaders and managers in your company or project, and acknowledging when you may need the help to bring what you’re working on to the next level. HD is proud of his success with Metasploit and Rumble, and is happy that he was able to hand off certain duties to other professionals that he knew would do better if they had a chance in the founder’s shoes.  “Don't let the growth of your company change what you enjoy about your work. That's really the big thing there, and there's lots of ways you can get there. You can hire folks to help out, you can promote your co-founder to CEO. You can bring on program managers or project managers to help with all the day to day stuff.”   What advice do ...
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    37 mins
  • From Black Hat to Bug Bounties [Pt. 2] with Thomas DeVoss

    From Black Hat to Bug Bounties [Pt. 2] with Thomas DeVoss
    Jun 24 2022
    We’re joined again by the hacker’s hacker, Tommy DeVoss, aka dawgyg. Bug bounty hunter and reformed black hat, Tommy dives back into a great conversation with us about his journey in hacking and his advice to future red team offensive hackers. We cover everything we couldn’t get to from part 1 of our interview, including his struggles with burnout, his past hacking foreign countries on a bold quest to stop terrorism, and his future in Twitch streaming to teach you how to be a better bug bounty hunter.   Timecoded Guide: [02:57] Fixating on hacking because of the endless possibilities and iterations to learn, but understanding that burnout does happen, especially when hacking gets frustrating [09:54] Giving advice to the next generation of hackers, including patience for success, getting back up after a failure, and dedicating yourself to a hands-on learning experience [17:17] Contacting Tommy and keeping up with him on Twitter, and asking questions publicly so that others can learn from the answers he gives you [21:43] Planning a Twitch course to teach hackers about bug bounties using real bugs and real-world examples of how they work [24:57] Hacking in the early 2000s and understanding the freedom Tommy has to talk about any and all illegal hacking he’s done now that he’s gone to prison    Sponsor Links: Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and PlexTrac for bringing this season of HVR to life! Life is complex. But it’s not about avoiding challenges or fearing failure. Just ask Simone Biles — the greatest gymnast of all time. Want to learn more about how Simone controls complexity? Watch her video at axonius.com/simone PlexTrac, the Proactive Cybersecurity Management Platform, brings red and blue teams together for better collaboration and communication. Check them out at plextrac.com/hackervalley   Do you ever struggle with burnout when it comes to hacking? Hacking has maintained Tommy’s interest longer than anything else because of the constant changes in technology and the ever-evolving issues in the online world. However, just because hacking is his passion, doesn’t mean that burnout or frustration never happens. Currently, Tommy is taking more of a break with hacking, letting his current day job and his passion for gaming have a front seat. However, he’s still firmly in the industry, passionately developing learning opportunities for future hackers and answering questions from cyber professionals of all backgrounds. “I do get burned out sometimes…When it comes to bug bounty hunting, I try and make it so it averages out to where I make at least $1,000 an hour for my effort. It doesn't always work. Sometimes I'm more, sometimes I'm less, but I try and get it so it averages out to about that.”   What hacking advice would you give the younger version of yourself?  Although his black hat ways resulted in prison time for Tommy, he doesn’t regret his past and instead seeks to teach others the lessons he’s learned. When we asked Tommy for advice for new hackers, he was clear that success is a longer journey than people assume it is. Tommy’s success was not a fluke, it took years of hands-on learning and patience with failures in order to develop his bug bounty skills. Nothing is actually automatic or easy with hacking, especially as the technology continues to change and evolve. Tommy wants hackers to take every opportunity to try out their skills, even if it's a complete failure. “Don't expect success overnight. Also, don't let failure discourage you. When it comes to hacking, you're going to fail significantly more than you're going to succeed. And the people that are successful in bug bounties are the ones that don't let those failures discourage them.”   What do you think about the “media obsessed” stereotype many people have about black hat hackers? Wrapping up today, Tommy tells us that he’d be happy to be back in the Hacker Valley Studio again some time. Although the stereotype of a black hat hacker wanting attention from the media is disproven, Tommy believes that he definitely has craved that media attention for a large majority of his hacking career. Starting in the early 2000s, after 9/11, Tommy had one of his first brushes with fame in an interview with CNN about hacking Middle Eastern companies. Although his hacking and his politics have changed since then, Tommy enjoys having in-depth conversations about hacking and explaining the intricacies of what he does. “We loved the attention back then, and I still love the attention now, it's nice. The good thing about now is, because I already got in trouble for everything that I've done, I've done my prison time, I don't have anything that I did illegally on the computer anymore that I can't talk about, because I've already paid my debt to society.”   What are the best ways for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Considering Tommy’s success, it’s understandable that a lot of cyber ...
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    34 mins
  • From Black Hat to Bug Bounties [Pt. 1] with Tommy DeVoss

    From Black Hat to Bug Bounties [Pt. 1] with Tommy DeVoss
    Jun 17 2022
    We’re joined by million-dollar hacker and bug bounty hunter, Thomas DeVoss, this week as we continue our season-long discussion of offensive cybersecurity legends. A legend in the making with a success story in bug bounty hunting that has to be heard to be believed, Tommy is an incredibly successful black hat hacker-turned-bug bounty hunter. He represents how misunderstood the hacking community can be and how positively impactful bug bounties can be. Who hacks the hackers? Look no further than Tommy DeVoss.   Timecoded Guide: [02:59] Becoming interested in hacking for the first time at a young age through internet chat rooms and finding a mentor through those rooms [08:26] Encountering unfriendly visits with the government and the FBI after his hacking skills progressed and being arrested in the 2000s [14:20] Seeking his first computer job after a couple visits to prison and finding a new position with someone that knew of his hacking skills  [25:21] Discussing with Yahoo the possibility of working with them due to his successful bug boundaries and understanding the limitation he would be under if he did that [30:56] Giving honest advice to hackers looking to break into the bug bounty scene and make the amount of money that he’s making   Sponsor Links: Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and PlexTrac for bringing this season of HVR to life! Life is complex. But it’s not about avoiding challenges or fearing failure. Just ask Simone Biles — the greatest gymnast of all time. Want to learn more about how Simone controls complexity? Watch her video at axonius.com/simone PlexTrac, the Proactive Cybersecurity Management Platform, brings red and blue teams together for better collaboration and communication. Check them out at plextrac.com/hackervalley   When did you get into hacking for the first time? At an early age, Thomas found his passion for hacking in an IRC chat room. Mentored by a man named Lewis and encouraged by fellow friends in the hacking world, popping shells and breaking into US systems using foreign IP addresses. Although Tommy became incredible at his craft from a young age, his early habits became serious black hat issues that ended up getting him in trouble with the US government. Just like the hacker in a big Hollywood blockbuster, the government caught up with Tommy and he faced 2 years in prison in his first sentence. “Instead of coming back to him and saying, "Hey, I'm done," I came back and I was actually asking him questions like, "Can you explain this?” And he saw that I was like, actually interested in this and I wasn't one of the people that was just expecting it to be handed to me and everything like that.”    After spending time in prison, were there barriers to getting involved in hacking again?  After being in and out of prison a couple times, Tommy found the worst part of coming home to be his ban from touching any sort of device with internet access. Despite it being a part of his probation, his passion for tech continued to bring him back to computers and gaming. After his final stint in prison after being falsely suspected of returning to his black hat ways, the FBI lifted Tommy’s indefinite ban on computer usage and immediately renewed his passion for working in tech.  “They had banned me indefinitely from touching a computer. So, when I came home on probation the first time, they upheld that and I still wasn't allowed to touch computers as part of my probation. For the first month or so, I didn't get on a computer when I came home from prison, but then it didn't take long before I got bored.”   How did your cyber career pivot to bug bounty hunting? With prison behind him and his ban on computers lifted, Tommy got a job working for a family friend in Richmond, Virginia for a modest salary of $30,000. Although this amount felt like a lot at the time, he quickly realized that there was money to be made in bug bounties. His first few experiments in attempting bug bounty programs had him earning $20,000 or $30,000 for hours of work, a huge increase from the salary he was currently making. Encountering success after success, Thomas quit his job in 2017 to become a full-time bug bounty hunter. “The first bug bounty program that jumped out at me was Yahoo. I had started hacking Yahoo in the mid 90s, I knew their systems in the 90s and early 2000s better than a lot of their system admins and stuff. And I figured, if there's any company that I should start out with, it should be them.”   What success have you seen since becoming a bug bounty hunter, especially with major corporations like Yahoo? Thomas has become a huge earner in the cybersecurity community, and has continued to see incredible results from his hacking and bug bounty projects. Most notably, after numerous high earning days, making up to $130K at once, with companies like Yahoo, he’s even been offered positions working with corporations he’s bug bountied for. However, Tommy is ...
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    35 mins
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Profile Image for Becky Bordeaux

I Love what you do, doin the lawds work out here now changing lives.

Unique content, a veritable whose who guided tour of behind the scenes access to very influential old school vets and the headline smashing innovative young pups. So much valuable content, which all the rich stories and insights to worlds some of us have yet to enter but we all are positively led through the podcast by the awesome caring fun loving and positive host and each time caught up in intrigue and adventure and left with so much positive inspiration and reinforcement at the end I feel like so many of us after a podcast run over to the rig and start running dos scripts in green fonts spamming mad cat style in the keyboard klickety klack ….KLACK! With intensive mysterious face quick glance to the right and exclaim…”I’m in!”

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