Tribe of Hackers Red Team

21Stephen Hilt

“Critical thinking in the moment is a big skill that really can’t be taught; it’s something that is learned over time, and some have the knack for it right away.”

Twitter: @tothehilt

Stephen Hilt is a senior threat researcher at Trend Micro. He focuses on general security research, threat actors, malware behind attacks, and industrial control system security. He enjoys breaking things and putting them back together with a few extra parts to spare. Stephen is a world-renowned researcher, having spoken at Blackhat US, RSA, HITB, and many more. His research has gained him Dark Reading top hacks of the year twice. Stephen is a Nmap contributor and has written some Nmap scripts for ICS and other mainstream protocols. This work took him into becoming an expert on ICS protocols, and he co-authored the book Hacking Exposed Industrial Control Systems: ICS and SCADA Security Secrets & Solutions.

How did you get your start on a red team?

I started working on network operations mostly with routing and switching. I slowly started taking on responsibilities of the security-based systems from a networking stance. Shortly after this, new compliance regulations came down from the regulators who oversaw my company at the time, and I became a subject-matter expert in networking and started doing compliance-based assessment prior to auditors coming in. I built a reputation of ...