Unlocking Cyber Education with John Hammond

August 25, 2022 Hacker Valley Studio

00:00:00

Show Notes

John Hammond, Senior Security Researcher at Huntress Labs and self-described cybersecurity education enthusiast, joins us as we continue our discussion of red team legends. With a focus on content creation this week, John discusses his success with his YouTube channel, his passion for showcasing authentic and accessible educational materials online, and his advice for creating content safely and spreading awareness with not only a red team or blue team mindset, but with a purple team perspective.

Timecode Guide:

[01:37] Understanding the impact of content creators in the cybersecurity community, especially when it comes to YouTube educational content

[06:58] Becoming a successful YouTube creator through consistently posting hacking content and ignoring the stereotype of “overnight success”

[13:28] Combining his role as a cybersecurity educator with his security research at Huntress to explore exploits and have real life experience with what he teaches

[16:47] Focusing on the blue side of the house as someone with red team experience, and understanding how to use a tool like PlexTrac to create a collaborative purple team

[21:13] Being mindful of the impact he has through sharing this knowledge and understanding the risk of cybersecurity educational materials falling into “the wrong hands”

Sponsor Links:

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and PlexTrac for bringing this season of HVR to life!

The Axonius solution correlates asset data from existing solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory, uncover gaps, and automate action — giving IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity. Learn more at axonius.com/hackervalley

PlexTrac is pleased to offer an exclusive Red Team Content Bundle for Hacker Valley listeners. This bundle contains both our "Writing a Killer Penetration Test Report" and "Effective Purple Teaming" white papers in ONE awesome package. Head to PlexTrac.com/HackerValley to learn more about the platform and get your copy today!

 

What is your origin story for wanting to educate other hackers?

Like many of us, John started his journey Googling how to become a hacker. As he gained more knowledge about the specific skills involved in hacking, John never left the internet behind, always seeking out videos and articles explaining new and emerging content. Inspired by those who created that content in the first place, he started his own YouTube channel, simply titled John Hammond, as has spent years cultivating a consistent hacker audience.

“Along the way, creating content and helping educate others through YouTube is really my main stage platform and has been just a passion project, a labor of love, and something fun along the way.”

 

What feelings do you get looking back on the YouTube content you’ve created so far?

John prioritizes clarity, transparency, and honesty in what he does, and he’s not afraid to show some humbleness, too. Overall, John is thankful for his YouTube success and the impact it had on the cybersecurity community. No matter what he’s showing in his videos, he prefers to keep things honest, to show where he’s made mistakes, and to accept criticism and advice from other hackers and offensive cybersecurity professionals that see his work.

“I'm showcasing just my computer screen, maybe you get a little face cam and a circle on the bottom right, but it's like you're looking over my shoulder. You're seeing me showcase something raw, live, genuine, and authentic…It’s not all sexy, there’s a lot of failure in hacking.”

 

Have you ever considered focusing on the blue team or the defensive side of cybersecurity?

The majority of John's YouTube content and the work he does in his role at Huntress Labs heavily involves the red team and offensive side of cyber. However, John is a huge advocate for the blue team and the red team collaborating and communicating better. Through making more concepts in cybersecurity accessible through educational content like John’s own videos, he hopes we can continue to bridge the gap and achieve that perfectly mixed purple team.

“We're all playing in concert. As one team sharpens their skills in the red team pen test, then it's up to the blue team to figure that out. What did they do? How can we better detect it? How can we stop and mitigate that security threat?”

 

What advice do you have for red team content creators that want to share content and spread awareness safely?

With the impact that he’s had and the content he’s put out onto the internet, John is no stranger to seeing the negative side of cybersecurity knowledge being more accessible than ever before.

 

Still, he wants to make sure content creators understand the value of transparency and honesty in what they do. Instead of fearing what could be, cultivate a community around making this level of knowledge and security available to everyone.

“Share, be transparent, be forthcoming. I know there are a lot of conversations about gatekeeping in cybersecurity, but there shouldn't be that. I understand there's grit and determination and hard work to do all the things that you're doing, but be friendly and be transparent and honest.”

----------

Links:

Check out our guest, John Hammond, on YouTube and LinkedIn.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Follow Ron Eddings on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Catch up with Chris Cochran on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Continue the conversation by joining our Discord.

Recent Episodes

December 5, 2023

Ransomware: How to Use AI to Create

a Readiness Kit with Scott Suthe...

The adversary is using Artificial Intelligence. Why aren’t you? In this episode, Host Chris Cochran talks with Scott Sutherland, VP of Research at NetSPI, about everyone’s favorite hot topics; ransomware and AI...

November 28, 2023

Cover Your SaaS: Navigating OAuth

and SaaS Security Challenges

SaaS misconfigurations may be responsible for up to 63% of security incidents. Do your SaaS applications have risky OAuth grants and misconfigurations? Let’s not find out. We will unravel the complexities of OA...

November 21, 2023

Standing Out On LinkedIn as a

Cybersecurity Professional with ...

In this episode, host Ron Eddings speaks with Chris Hughes, President at Aquia, Cyber Innovation Fellow at CISA, and cybersecurity legend. Special guest, Chris Hughes, was initially inspired to build a personal...

November 7, 2023

Adversarial AI: Navigating the

Cybersecurity Landscape

In this episode, host Ron Eddings is joined by Sr. Director of Red Team Operations at Coalfire, Pete Deros, to discuss the hottest topic around; adversarial AI. Ron and Pete discuss how AI is used and how the a...

October 31, 2023

Protecting What You Can’t See with

HD Moore

In this episode, host Ron Eddings is joined by Metasploit creator, co-founder and CEO of runZero, HD Moore. HD changed the world with Metasploit and he’s doing it again with runZero. Attack Surface Management c...

October 24, 2023

Penetration Testing, Public

Speaking, and Content Creation w...

In this episode, Ron Eddings is joined by Penetration Tester, Instructor, International Speaker, Best Selling Author, and Podcast Host, Phillip Wylie. Phillip shares how pen testing and the need to educate peop...

October 17, 2023

Ruse and Deception: From Hollywood

to Corporate Espionage with Robe...

In this episode, Host Ron Eddings interviews Robert Kerbeck, author of Ruse: Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street. Robert shares how his professional acting skills helped his career in corpora...

October 10, 2023

Hacker Culture and ADHD with Kim

Crawley

In this episode, host Ron Eddings is joined by cybersecurity researcher and writer, Kim Crawley, to deep dive into one of her greatest passions; computing! From its origins to its newest capabilities in quantum...

October 3, 2023

Starting at the Endpoint with Danny

Jenkins

In this episode, host Ron Eddings is joined by Co-Founder and CEO of ThreatLocker, Danny Jenkins, to talk about his "Hero’s Journey" from IT to launching ThreatLocker. From spam emails, bots, and ransomware to ...

September 26, 2023

Having Resilience In Your Cyber

Career with Erika Eakins

In this episode, host Chris is joined by Erika Eakins — a cybersecurity sales ninja, podcaster, and co-founder at Teach Kids Tech. Erika opens up about her challenges entering tech and cybersecurity as a woman ...

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.