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From zero to the anti-hero: journey of building a low profile elite hacking team

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Talk overview:

In cybersecurity, there are the heroes who participate in bug bounty programs, report vulnerabilities, and climbing ranks in the hall of fame and there are the superheroes, competing in high-profile hacking events, publishing cutting-edge research, and gaining worldwide recognition. Then, there are the anti-heroes, highly skilled but low profile hackers who don’t always follow the conventional path, stay quietly behind the scene, push boundaries, and own major vulnerabilities-with some even appeared in pwnie award, but without their names attached.

This talk is about the journey of starting with nothing to assembling an elite offensive security team. I’ll share insights on what it takes to develop research and
hacking skills, the ethical dilemmas of vulnerability disclosure (or non-disclosure), and how to contribute (or not contribute) to security without necessarily following
the norms of public recognition.

For those who are passionate about offensive security but don’t see themselves on stage or in headlines, this session is for you. Whether you’re a CTF player, an exploit developer, or someone breaking into the field, we’ll discuss how being the underdog, can be a great advantage.

Phuong Nguyen has been involved in computer security since 1998 and has over 25 years of experience in offensive security. For the shenanigans and trouble he caused, he was recognized by the U.S. government as an Individual with Extraordinary Ability and was granted O-1 visa status. Phuong is also the author of multiple critical zero-day vulnerabilities—such as remote code execution—in software including browsers, antivirus programs, and archive/compression tools, with a market value worth millions of USD.
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Phuong Nguyen
Founder & Troublemaker at ECQ
Phuong Nguyen has been involved in computer security since 1998 and has over 25 years of experience in offensive security. For the shenanigans and trouble he caused, he was recognized by the U.S. government as an Individual with Extraordinary Ability and was granted O-1 visa status. Phuong is also the author of multiple critical zero-day vulnerabilities—such as remote code execution—in software including browsers, antivirus programs, and archive/compression tools, with a market value worth millions of USD.