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- The PWN: Issue 003
Welcome to the third edition of The PWN! Thanks to everyone who subscribed!
July Podcast Episodes
The July episodes of The Phillip Wylie Show are off to a great start with episodes featuring Matt Toussain and Matt Brown.
The first episode of July features my conversation with Matt Toussain, who shares his unconventional journey from aspiring Air Force lawyer to offensive security innovator. We dive into the importance of hands-on experience, vulnerability management, and giving back through open-source contributions. Matt introduces his project, SeriousScan—an open-source vulnerability scanner designed to help mid-sized businesses improve their security without breaking the bank. We also explore how AI is reshaping cybersecurity, especially when it comes to understanding programming languages like TypeScript, Golang, and Python. If you’re looking to expand your offensive security skills or break into the field, this episode is packed with practical insights.
In the second episode of The Phillip Wylie Show, I had the pleasure of speaking with Matt Brown—a cybersecurity professional, hardware hacker, and successful YouTuber who’s grown his channel to over 100,000 subscribers in just two years. Matt shared how a junior high electronics class and a YouTube video on WEP cracking sparked his passion for cybersecurity. We talked about how to break into hardware and IoT hacking without expensive gear, the essential tools and techniques he uses, and the growing demand for hardware security pros. Matt also opened up about his content creation journey, why unedited videos resonate with technical audiences, and how bug bounty opportunities helped fund his work. We dove into career advice, the impact of AI on the cybersecurity landscape, and why strong communication skills are critical for success in this field. If you're looking to level up your hardware hacking game or explore content creation, you’ll get a lot from this conversation.
Thank you to CyberDagger for sponsoring this edition of the newsletter. CyberDagger also sponsors the podcast, and the episode features their founder, John Rodriguez. Check out this episode on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.
You can find the episode on your favorite platform, which can be found here.
Upcoming Events
I always love connecting with people in my network and my podcast listeners. I will record a live episode of The Phillip Wylie Show at Boardwalk Bytes Information Security Conference in Atlantic City, NJ, on July 11. Tickets are still available and can be purchased here: https://boardwalkbytes.org/
On July 25 and 26, I am participating in a CISO panel at BSides AQB. Tickets and event details can be found at https://bsidesabq.org/.
Simply Offensive
Last week, the first episode of my new podcast, Simply Offensive, was published and featured Michael Kim. You can find the podcast on Simply Cyber’s YouTube channel under the Simply Offensive podcast https://www.youtube.com/@SimplyCyber. Episode two featuring Amélie Koran will be available on Tuesday, July 8 at 9:30 AM Central Time.
Cybersecurity Tools
My security tool pick for the week is Nuclei by Project Discovery. Nuclei is a fast, customizable vulnerability scanner powered by the global security community and built on a simple YAML-based DSL, enabling collaboration to tackle trending vulnerabilities on the internet. It helps you find vulnerabilities in your applications, APIs, networks, DNS, and cloud configurations. Nuclei is a free tool and part of a suite of free tools offered by Project Discovery, and is popular in the bug bounty community.
Phillip Wylie Show Episode Spotlight
In this episode, I interviewed Jason Haddix, the founder of Arcanum Security. This boutique penetration testing firm provides offensive security services and training, ranging from red teaming to penetration testing, including network, web application, and ML/LLM security.
Jason’s Bio:
Jason has had a distinguished 20-year career in cybersecurity, previously serving as CISO of Buddobot, CISO of Ubisoft, Head of Trust/Security/Operations at Bugcrowd, Director of Penetration Testing at HP, and Lead Penetration Tester at Redspin.
He has also held positions doing mobile penetration testing, network/infrastructure security assessments, and static analysis.
Jason is a hacker, bug hunter, and is currently ranked 57th all-time on Bugcrowd's bug bounty leaderboards. Currently, he specializes in recon, web application analysis, and emerging technologies.
Jason has also authored many talks for world-renowned conferences like DEF CON, Bsides, Black Hat, RSA, OWASP, Nullcon, SANS, IANS, BruCon, ToorCon, and many more. Check out his episode on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform here.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of The PWN!
Cheers!
Phillip Wylie