Host Dave Johnson sits down with Mike Lisi, President of Red Team Village, and Wes Thurner, Advisor at Red Team Village, to explore offensive security training and community building. Mike and Wes share how Red Team Village creates a collaborative environment where practitioners at all levels can develop skills, share knowledge, and push boundaries—without the gatekeeping that often plagues the industry.
Key topics & timestamps
AI's role in red team operations (0:00 - 1:26)
What is Red Team Village? (2:26 - 4:16)
Red team vs. penetration testing (4:19 - 6:20)
The tactics format: learning in small chunks (3:20 - 4:16)
Red Team Village beyond DEF CON (26:20 - 27:02)
Reading recommendations (26:43 - 28:01)
Looking ahead to 2026 (28:01 - 30:00)
Key quotes
"The focus here is that we're here to share our skills, share our knowledge with folks that are interested in offensive security. It's not necessarily just the advanced folks that are trying to transition into red team roles, though that is a big part of it. But we really try and cover across the spectrum of offensive security." - Mike Lisi
"What we saw was just this roundtable with somebody that was knowledgeable at a topic, and then 20 or 30 people just all huddled together talking about it was like a very communal sort of thing. It was way less formal than sitting in the audience and just watching one person speak." - Mike Lisi
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