7MS #342: Interview with Matt McCullough

7MS #342: Interview with Matt McCullough

Matt McCullough (a.k.a. Matty McFly on Slack) joined me in the studio to talk about his wild and crazy path to security. He started literally with no technical experience, but through a lot of hard work, aggressive networking and taking advantage of educational and career opportunities, Matt now rocks a SOC job. Matt and I sat down to talk about a lot of good stuff:

  • How to start an IT career as "the family IT guy"

  • Leveraging a higher education (at places like Lake Superior College to meet people of influence and start networking like a beast

  • Entry level sysadmin and helpdesk jobs are fun - great opportunities to make the most of the position, build your skills and stretch yourself outside your comfort zone

  • MSPs (Managed Service Providers) are another great way to see different clients/verticals/systems and the various requirements that go into supporting them. From there, look for opportunities to start securing those organizations, as many MSPs don't dabble heavily into the security realm.

  • If you're going to school for cybersecurity training, look for ways to leverage your status to get discounts on security training, such as with SANS

  • Competitions like CCDC are awesome. You're given a handful of servers that are full of vulnerabilities, and you essentially are tasked with defending a network against a professional group of pentesters/redteamers. You even have to deal with real-life "injections" (other random emergencies and mock customers to deal with) while you're in the thick of the battle!

  • Join local cyber clubs (or start your own)! Looking for a fun CTF to get started in a group setting? Try hacking the OWASP Juice Shop

  • Attend security conferences(or start your own)!

...more notes at 7MS.us!

Episoder(499)

7MS #687: A Peek into the 7MS Mail Bag – Part 5

7MS #687: A Peek into the 7MS Mail Bag – Part 5

Hi friends, we’re doing something today we haven’t done in a hot minute: take a dip into the 7MinSec mail bag! Today we cover these questions: If I’m starting a solo business venture as a security consultancy, is it a good idea to join forces with other solo security business owners and form a consortium of sorts? Have you ever had anything go catastrophically wrong during a pentest?  Yes, and this is an important link in the story: https://github.com/fortra/impacket/issues/1436 What ever happened with the annoying apartment neighbor who stomped around like a rhino when you made any noise during COVID? What happened to the “difficult family situation” you vaguely talked about a few months ago that involved police and lawyers – did that ever get resolved?

11 Aug 57min

7MS #686: Our New Pentest Training Course is Almost Ready

7MS #686: Our New Pentest Training Course is Almost Ready

Oh man, I’m so excited I can hardly sleep. Our new three-day (4 hours per day) training is getting closer to general release. I talk about the good/bad/ugly of putting together an attack-sensitive lab that students can abuse (but hopefully not break!), and the technical/curriculum-writing challenges that go along with it.

1 Aug 23min

7MS #685: The Time My Neighbor Almost Got Scammed Out of $13K

7MS #685: The Time My Neighbor Almost Got Scammed Out of $13K

Today’s kind of a “story time with your friend Brian” episode: a tale of how my neighbor almost got scammed out of $13k.  The story has a lot of red flags we can all keep in mind to keep ourselves (as well as kids/friends/parents/etc.) safer from these types of shenanigans.

25 Jul 22min

7MS #684: Pwning Ninja Hacker Academy

7MS #684: Pwning Ninja Hacker Academy

Hey friends, today we start pwning Ninja Hacker Academy – cool CTF-style lab that has you start with no cred and try to conquer domain admin on two domains!

18 Jul 22min

7MS #683: What I'm Working on This Week - Part 4

7MS #683: What I'm Working on This Week - Part 4

This week I’m working on a mixed bag of fun security and marketing things: A pentest I’m stuck on My latest lab CTF obsession: Ninja Hacker Academy A cool “about 7MinSec” marketing video that was recorded in a pro studio!

12 Jul 30min

7MS #682: Securing Your Family During and After a Disaster – Part 7

7MS #682: Securing Your Family During and After a Disaster – Part 7

Today’s episode is a downer! We talk about things you might want to have buttoned up for when you are eventually not alive anymore: Living will Buried vs. cremated? Funeral plans Funeral PHOTOS? I also talk about how my dad broke his ribs while trying to break a chimpmunk, and how a freak 4-wheeler accident also had my ribs in agony.

4 Jul 30min

7MS #681: Pentesting GOAD – Part 3

7MS #681: Pentesting GOAD – Part 3

Today Joe “The Machine” Skeen and I pwn the third and final realm in the world of GOAD (Game of Active Directory): essos.local!  The way we go about it is to do a WinRM connection to our previously-pwned Kingslanding domain, coerce authentication out of MEEREEN (the DC for essos.local) and then capture/abuse the TGT with Rubeus!  Enjoy.

27 Jun 18min

7MS #680: Tips for a Better Purple Team Experience

7MS #680: Tips for a Better Purple Team Experience

Today I share some tips on creating a better purple team experience for your customers, including: Setting up communication channels and cadence Giving a heads-up on highs/criticals during testing (not waiting until report time) Where appropriate, record videos of attacks to give them more context

20 Jun 26min

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