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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

Analyze the balance between gaining useful information and avoiding detection, detailing recon techniques that can be employed without compromising stealth.…

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Blog March 17 2023

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

Threat Overview Earlier this week, Microsoft released a patch for Outlook vulnerability CVE-2023-23397, which has been actively exploited for almost an entire…

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Webinars March 15 2023

Ask Me Anything: Penetration Testing Innovations and Insights

Join David Kennedy, Founder & Chief Hacking Officer, and Justin Elze, CTO & Director of Research, for a live webinar in which they’ll answer your questions…

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Webinars December 14 2021

Log4j: Live Update Webcast

During the webcast, we will be joined by David Kennedy, TrustedSec CEO & Binary Defense CTO, Randy Pargman, Binary Defense Vice President of Threat Hunting &…

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Blog September 03 2024

When on Workstation, Do as the Local Browsers Do!

1    IntroductionWeb browsers are common targets for many different APTs. Tools like Redline Malware or penetration testing tools such as SharpChrome or…

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Blog August 29 2024

Gobbling Up Forensic Analysis Data Using Velociraptor

Lately I have been working with Velociraptor for its endpoint and digital forensic capabilities and specifically spent time in many cases in the past two years…

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Blog August 22 2024

The Hunter’s Workshop: Mastering the Essentials of Threat Hunting

As an incident unfolds, skilled threat hunters with a special talent for uncovering hidden threats stand at the ready. These hunters smoke jump into the chaos…

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Blog August 15 2024

Oops I UDL'd it Again

IntroductionPhishing. We all love phishing. This post is about a new phishing technique based on some legacy knowledge I had that can be used to get past email…

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Blog August 13 2024

Must I TRA?: PCI Targeted Risk Analysis

Use of Targeted Risk Analysis (TRA) is a PCI best practice until March 31, 2025, at which time it becomes required for several controls across many assessment…

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Blog August 06 2024

Execution Guardrails: No One Likes Unintentional Exposure

1.1 IntroductionA hopefully rare scenario that gives red teamers a mini heart-attack is a sudden check-in from a new agent: admin on ALICE-PC.If a blue teamer…

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