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Justin Elze

CTO, Director of Research

EXPERIENCE
Justin Elze is currently serving as Chief Technology Officer at TrustedSec. Over his 8 years with the company as an InfoSec expert, Justin has used his vast expertise in enterprise penetration testing, network security, social engineering, and red teaming to identify clients’ vulnerabilities and ultimately, protect their technology infrastructure. Prior to becoming CTO, Justin held the roles of Director of Innovation, Research, and Advanced Testing and Principal Security Consultant for TrustedSec.

With more than a decade of experience in the IT industry, Justin’s expertise is increasingly sought out by others in the field. He has taught at Black Hat and spoken at DerbyCon, where he also served on the CFP Review Board, and is also featured as an industry leader in the published books Tribe of Hackers: Cybersecurity Advice from the Best Hackers in the World and Tribe of Hackers Red Team: Tribal Knowledge from the Best in Offensive Cybersecurity.

Prior to joining TrustedSec, Justin was a Senior Penetration Tester for Accuvant LABS, Optiv, Dell SecureWorks, and Redspin, where he led numerous red team engagements and penetration tests. He has worked across a variety of industries, including roles for ISPs, hosting companies, Department of Defense contracting companies, and consulting companies. Today, he leans on what he learned throughout his roles in various capacities to inform his choices as CTO and further his thought leadership in the industry.

Outside of his work experience and “ethical hacker” persona, Justin is passionate about building, tuning, and racing cars (and, yes, occasionally hacking them) and spending time with his 3 dogs. You can find his latest musings—security-related and otherwise—on his Twitter account, @HackingLZ.

Featured Blogs And Resources

Discover the blogs, analysis, webinars, and podcasts by this team member.

Blog May 18 2023

Walking the Tightrope: Maximizing Information Gathering while Avoiding Detection for Red Teams

Understanding network reconnaissance without detection is crucial in commercial testing, leveraging tools like BloodHound and scripts to gather valuable…

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Blog March 17 2023

Critical Outlook Vulnerability: In-Depth Technical Analysis and Recommendations (CVE-2023-23397)

Protect your organization from the Microsoft Outlook CVE-2023-23397 vulnerability with expert guidance and a simple remediation script.

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Webinars March 15 2023

Ask Me Anything: Penetration Testing Innovations and Insights

Join David Kennedy & Justin Elze for a live Q&A on penetration testing, tackling the ever-changing tactics used by attackers, and get answers to your burning…

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Webinars December 14 2021

Log4j: Live Update Webcast

Learn how to detect and respond to the Log4j vulnerability with experts from TrustedSec & Binary Defense, including David Kennedy, during our live webcast.

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Blog July 02 2026

Inheriting the Receipts: Securing the AI Your Company Already Adopted

The work is not new. The speed is. In this blog, we're outlining how existing security pillars apply to the AI your organization has already adopted; no new…

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Blog June 25 2026

Large Workflows with Local LLMs

As it turns out, local LLMs have a few opinions about large workflows. In this blog, we walk through the scaling challenges of local LLMs and the custom Python…

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Blog June 18 2026

Modern Web Application Content Discovery

Staring at a web app with no links and no navigation? In this blog, we break down modern content discovery, from forced browsing and web crawling to Google…

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Blog June 16 2026

JQ for Hackers

Grey-bearded hackers and sysadmins still reaching for cut and CSV files, this one's for you. In this blog, we break down jq and why it's time to embrace JSON.

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Blog June 12 2026

JS-Tap v3: Endpoint Post-Exploitation With JavaScript Implants

JavaScript escaped the browser. JS-Tap v3 followed it. In this blog, we introduce three new beacons targeting the Electron apps, browser extensions, and Node…

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Blog June 11 2026

Hardening Intune: The Implementation Guide

Now that we've identified the blind spot, here's how to fix it. In Part 2 of our blog series, we deliver a phase-based implementation guide to hardening…

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