Here we grow again… The Social-Engineer Team
Many years ago when I started to venture out in the wilderness on my own, I had an idea… a crazy idea. Can a company that focuses solely on social engineering pentests and services be successful? Especially at a time when SE wasn’t a hot “selling” point?
Well here we are on year 6 and the Social-Engineer team has grown from just me, to now 12 people. Many have asked who and what kind of talent we have in our company, so let’s introduce the team.
Our management team is:
Chris Hadnagy. Chris is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of Social-Engineer, LLC. He started off with SE as a hobby and that lead to the SE Framework, SEPodcast, SENewsletter, and the Blog, all at Social-Engineer.Org. This bore the book, Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, as well as this company. Later on, Chris went on to write two more books. Unmasking the Social Engineer, with his friend and mentor Dr. Paul Ekman. Then Phishing Dark Waters, with his friend and right hand, Michele Fincher. Chris is an OSCP and OSWP and also certified in “Physical Penetration Testing” by The CORE Group.
Michele Fincher. Michele is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and official right hand to all things in Social-Engineer, LLC. She is a former US Air Force Academy Assistant Professor, field trained therapist, and all-around ninja (no kidding, do you see the pic?). She has her B.S. in Human Factors Engineering, M.S. in Counseling, her CISSP, certified in “Physical Penetration Testing” by The CORE Group, as well as some amazing SE talents. She is also a co-trainer for APSE and MLSE.
Kazuyuki Nishi. Kaz is the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and has recently joined the team to help organize, plan, and keep us sane. Kaz comes to us from a completely different industry but has fit nicely into the world of SE. As a graduate of the APSE class, he is showing that social engineering is something he enjoys. Kaz has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology and has brought a level of organization to the company that we desperately needed.
Our core team keeps growing, so let’s introduce them (in alphabetical order).
Bryan Austin. Bryan is an avid maker… he loves to take things apart and figure out how they work, whether that be an exploit, hardware hacking, or people (well not literally taking them apart). Bryan is a family man with a real desire to learn. He helps with phishing, is an amazing visher, and our resident hardware hacker. Bryan has several technical certificates and is a graduate of APSE.
Karen X. Karen is our dark horse. No one even knows if she is real or just a figment of Chris’ imagination, but a lot of work gets done that is attributed to her. She is personally responsible for making our SE Framework look professional and helping us manage social media.
Dan Falk. Dan is our Senior Network Analyst. To say that he is really amazing is an understatement. Dan is more like the Superman of Network-ey things. Don’t be fooled by his boyish looks, he is the reason our tech stays alive and working. Dan has a Master’s degree in Information Assurance, a history of blue teaming, and is a graduate of APSE.
Colin Hadnagy. Colin is one of our resident OSINT’ers. That is just a fancy way of saying that Colin is a professional creeper. He digs up dirt on targets, is a great visher, and helps us manage social media profiles for numerous identities. Colin is a graduate of APSE and also certified in “Physical Penetration Testing” by The CORE Group.
Mike Hadnagy. Mike is the master of phish; a professional phisherman. He helps write, create, and load all phishing campaigns. In addition, he helps with OSINT on targets and is our all-around gopher in a number of our classes. Mike is a true team player and helps us stay positive. Mike is a graduate of APSE and also certified in “Physical Penetration Testing” by The CORE Group.
Summer Lee. Summer is one of the newest members to join our family. Summer is our lead network pentester but, behind the love of hacking computers is a really great social engineer. Summer is a star visher, helps with phishing, an exploit writer, and will be assisting in a number of classes. In addition, she is a mentor for the AFA CyberPatriots program and volunteers for various regional collegiate cyber defense (CCDC) competitions. Summer is soon to be a graduate of APSE. She majored in Computer Forensics & Computer Networking and also has a Bachelor’s degree in IT Systems Security.
Amanda Marchuck. Amanda was my very first employee. She has been by my side since the very beginning and has been there through all our ups and downs. Amanda is the official nagger, organizer, and planner. She helps with social media, organization of newsletters, planning our courses, and so much else. Her amazing work has earned her the title “Orginagger” which she wears proudly.
Hannah Silvers. Hannah was first introduced to us as the youngest person to ever compete in the SECTF at DEF CON 20. It was simply meant to be that afterward, she would join our team. Hannah is presently in college for tech writing, and she came to us to help perfect our reports. In addition to that, she is an amazing visher. It must be her Southern charm. These talents are only growing as Hannah works through college and eventually joins us full time. Hannah is working on her Bachelor of Arts in English and will be an APSE graduate soon.
Laurie Varner. Laurie also competed in the SECTF at DEF CON 21, where we first learned of her amazing SE abilities. She took second place in a very competitive year. Now she uses those same talents as a one-woman call center. She does more vishing than any person I have ever met, and she is not all about the numbers – she has the success and talent to back it up. In addition to that, Laurie is an amazing organizer, a speaker for Social-Engineer, and an avid fisher (the real ones that swim) and surfer (in real life, not just the Intertubes.) Laurie has an M.S. in Information Assurance and is a graduate of APSE.
Now that you have met the team, we look forward to working with you and getting to know you. We are constantly growing, so we will be adding to this list soon, I am sure.
As a company, Social-Engineer is proud to employ so many talented and devoted women and men in the tech and security space (I almost said “cyber”).
Thank you for joining us on this journey.
Till next time.
