Show Notes
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.
Alissa’s first start-up was a web design company where she ran a Lennox webserver around the time the teardrop attack in Lennox servers. The people she rented office space from were teardropping her web hosting server. She picked up a book on cyber security, and got introduced into the world of cyber security through necessity. She had a passion for finding vulnerabilities, and understanding things that were difficult to understand, which is what brought her to embedded systems. The rest she says is history.
As the episode ends, Alissa talks about her YouTube Channel, KnighTV. She says she’s always been an artist, and always wanted to do things at 200%. Her following is relatively new, at the beginning of 2019 she only had 4 followers on Twitter and now she’s passed the threshold to be part of the YouTube Partner Program. She wanted a cinematic experience for the viewer to stand out and not be just another video for the viewer. For anyone interested in getting started in being a breaker, she’s posted a couple videos on the topic, and explains there are many resources at their disposal. She says this line of work takes grit, and in her opinion a passion for reading.
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
Recent Episodes
Mentorship to Mastery: AI and Community Lessons with Ron Eddings
AI might analyze your logs in seconds, but only the community can put you in the room that changes your career. In this solo episode, Ron Eddings discusses the powerful balance between human ...
From MCP Risks to AI Jailbreaks with Marco Figueroa
When AI agents move faster than security teams, the game changes, and the risks multiply. Ron welcomes back Marco “Mystic Marc” Figueroa, Program Manager at Mozilla’s 0DIN Program, to continue ...
Debt vs. Risk: What the SharePoint Breach Taught Us with Ron ...
The riskiest move in cybersecurity? Playing it too safe. In this solo episode, Ron Eddings redefines the way we think about technical debt, risk, and missed opportunities, in security and in ...
The Future of Cyber Talent Is African with Confidence Staveley
The world’s youngest continent is also its most untapped resource. Confidence Staveley, Founder of CyberSafe, makes a powerful case for why Africa’s youth are the answer to global cybersecurity ...
Compliance Isn’t the Enemy with Jeff Man
Is compliance just a checkbox, or the backbone of real security? Returning to the show with decades of hard-earned insight, Jeff Man makes the case that compliance, especially PCI-DSS, isn't ...
What Makes a Great CISO? A Playbook from Gary Hayslip
What separates a great CISO from a great one? In this powerhouse conversation, Ron invites friend and cybersecurity leader Gary Hayslip, CISO at SoftBank Investment Advisers, back on the mic to ...
Confidence, Coaching, and the S-Word with Mel Reyes
Want to stand out as a leader? According to our guest Mel Reyes, you need to dress like you mean it and speak like you’ve got nothing to prove. In this episode, Mel shares how he built ...
Purple Teaming Is the New Job Security with Maril Vernon
Cybersecurity isn’t just red or blue anymore... it’s purple, white, and deeply human. Maril Vernon, award-winning ethical hacker and Senior Solutions Architect at NetSPI, returns to the Hacker ...
The AI Gold Rush in Cybersecurity with Chris Cochran
The new cybersecurity pioneers aren’t chasing alerts, they’re building with AI. But what happens when tools meant to assist begin making decisions for us? And what skills do we lose when ...
The AI That Tried to Escape with Ron Eddings
What happens when AI refuses to be replaced? This episode kicks off with a chilling real-world example of an AI threatening blackmail—and only gets more intense from there. Host Ron Eddings ...
WORK WITH US
PODCASTS + SPEAKING + EVENTS
Are you the best kept secret in cybersecurity? Let's change that by partnering together for podcast ads, social campaigns, and your next event or keynote. Send us your details to get started.
Thank you!
We will be in touch soon and reach out to you at