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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 September 23 2025

HIPAA Business Associates - What’s Your Function?

Many teams working with health care providers receive requests to sign a Business Associate Agreement. In this blog, we break down HIPAA’s definition of a…

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Blog September 16 2025

HIPAA Covered Entities - It’s More Than Just PHI

Handling health records doesn’t automatically make an organization a Covered Entity. In this blog, we help clear up common misconceptions so teams can better…

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Blog September 12 2025

WSUS Is SUS: NTLM Relay Attacks in Plain Sight

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a trusted cornerstone of patch management in many environments, but its reliance on HTTP/HTTPS traffic makes it a…

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Blog September 10 2025

A Big Step on the CMMC Rollout Timeline

A major step on the CMMC rollout timeline was completed recently as the regulatory change that will create the CMMC contract clause made its way to the Office…

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Blog September 09 2025

Detecting Active Directory Password-Spraying with a Honeypot Account

Password-spraying is a popular technique which involves guessing passwords to gain control of accounts. This automated password-guessing is performed against…

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Blog September 04 2025

HIPAA Protected Health Information - When Health Information Isn’t Protected

Many organizations don’t understand that not all health information is PHI and apply HIPAA more broadly than is required. This has implications for which…

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