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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 April 24 2025

The Necessity of Active Testing – Detection Edition

Most security teams understand the importance of log collection and building detections to provide early indicators of anomalous or potentially malicious…

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Blog April 22 2025

How Far Should You Let Penetration Testers Go?

How far should you let penetration testers go once they have a finding or foothold on a penetration test of your organization?As far as they can!The goal is to…

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Blog April 17 2025

Discovering Your Baud

I'm still pretty new to hardware hacking and find myself going through a lot of media (both text and moving pictures) about various techniques to interact with…

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Blog April 16 2025

TrustedSec Achieves CREST Certification

TrustedSec has achieved CREST Certification for penetration testing, a globally recognized standard that verifies an organization's ability to conduct…

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Blog April 08 2025

Kubernetes for Pentesters: Part 1

In the first section of this multi-part practical guide, I’ll introduce you to Kubernetes (K8s) from a penetration testing perspective, including basic…

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Blog April 01 2025

CUI For the Rest of Us: The New Government-Wide CUI Protection Contract Clause

U.S. government contractors need to start preparing for a proposed new government-wide Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) protection requirement.

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