Episode Details

In this season of Hacker Valley Red, we focus on cybersecurity legends in offensive operations with a legend in the physical pen testing and lockpicking: Deviant Ollam. As a pioneer in our industry and an author of two incredible books about lockpicking, Deviant shares his history from hobbyist to professional and all that he’s learned along the way about making the secrets of the hacking world accessible to all.

Timecoded Guide:

[01:28] Defining the pioneers in cybersecurity

[08:47] Deviant’s first explorations in lockpicking

[16:03] Accessing and democratizing hacking secrets

[18:58] Becoming an author to transfer his knowledge

[23:12] Seeing the past, present, and future of hacking

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 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! And be sure to come say hello to us at Black Hat at Booth #1686!

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What does it mean to be a pioneer in cybersecurity?

As our season focuses on legends, it’s important that we explain what makes these individuals such a vital part of our community. In the case of this episode, we explain that our guest Deviant is nothing short of a pioneer. Deviant has been willing to take on new challenges and revolutionize the industry throughout his career, influencing hundreds of individuals and leaving a lasting educational impact on the entire industry.

“That ‘zero to one’ part can be the hardest part of any progression in any field, but especially in cybersecurity.” — Chris

When you reflect on changing this whole industry, how does that make you feel?

Despite our guest’s legendary reputation, Deviant is humble about his achievements, caring more about how his work has impacted others than himself. What he focuses most on in his teaching, presentations, and writing is making lockpicking and penetration testing accessible and understandable. Instead of harboring secrets and perpetuating exclusionary policies, Deviant wants anyone to be able to master these skills and understand this knowledge.

“I’m not the first one who ever did this. What I like to think of my contributions is that they have chiefly been making it accessible and democratizing this knowledge.” — Deviant

Do you think it's harder today to stand out than it was a couple decades ago?

For Deviant, our globalized internet and algorithm-focus social media sites are both a blessing and a curse. While knowledge can be found on every corner of the web