Tribe of Hackers Red Team

1Marcus J. Carey

“Today, open source tools dominate the red team space, making it possible for more people to get familiar and practice.”

Twitter: @marcusjcarey • Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcuscarey/

Marcus J. Carey is a cybersecurity community advocate and startup founder with more than 25 years of protecting government and commercial sensitive data. He started his cybersecurity career in U.S. Navy cryptology with further service in the National Security Agency (NSA).

How did you get your start on a red team?

The funny thing about my red team journey is I wasn’t technically a paid red teamer until I got fired from a job and had to make ends meet. I picked up work at an East Coast consultancy doing penetration testing and product development.

I was able to gain red team skills by working at the Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3). There I did research, taught, and did course development. Amazingly, I had access to all the red team tools that you could imagine, plus every digital forensics tool on the planet. I also had the pleasure of working with a guy named Johnny Long who was quite the hacker and red teamer himself.

I’m extremely lucky to have been in those positions to prepare me for a red team role. Today, open source tools dominate the red team space, making it possible for more people to get familiar and practice.

They say luck is when preparation meets ...