Layer 8 Podcast

Kirby Plessas [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirbyp/] is an OSINT pioneer, US military veteran, business owner, board member, is OSC certified [https://osmosisinstitute.org/osc/]and podcast host. Kirby was an Arabic linguist in the military who started sharing what she knew with team members in a newsletter and it grew from there. She is the founder of the Plessas Experts Network [https://plessas.net/] which offers training, classes and webinars in OSINT investigations. She also co-hosts the OSINT Cocktail [https://osintcocktail.com/] podcast where they talk about investigations and techniques seen in movies and television shows.

Craig Taylor [https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigmtaylor/] is the founder and CEO of CyberHoot [https://cyberhoot.com/] a security awareness company that focuses on positive reinforcement and gamification. Craig studied psychology and used that knowledge when creating CyberHoot, which he offers for free. Craig also set up a challenge specifically for listeners of the Layer 8 Podcast, if you'd like to test your ability to identify a phish and the parts of a phish quickly. It's even free! You can try that out here: https://cps.cyberhoot.com/hootphish-challenge/?hash=65199056c6edbc93f2755078a5b15743 [https://cps.cyberhoot.com/hootphish-challenge/?hash=65199056c6edbc93f2755078a5b15743 ] There will be a leaderboard, and you can check your status on the leaderboard here: https://cps.cyberhoot.com/hootphish-challenge/shared-results/?hash=8b7f346b97c7dd027215d741f0ae36fb [https://cps.cyberhoot.com/hootphish-challenge/shared-results/?hash=8b7f346b97c7dd027215d741f0ae36fb ] This free challenge will end on May 31, 2025.

Tim Farmer [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-farmer-osc-2ab537162/] is the OSINT Training Lead for Dark Blue at CACI [https://www.caci.com/darkblue]. He performs investigations along with teaching OSINT classes with a focus on the deep and dark web. (Don't know the difference? We discuss that in this episode.) Tim has his own podcast with Chris, titled The OSINT Output [https://theosintoutput.com/]. Tim has achieved the OSC certification from Osmosis Academy and will be presenting at the Layer 8 Conference [https://layer8conference.com/schedule/] this year with a talk titled "Deanonymizing Dark Web Hidden Services: Capitalizing on User Mistakes and Querying Internet of Things Databases"

Dorota Kozlowska [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorota-kozlowska/] is a social engineer and penetration tester for Black Hills Information Security [https://www.blackhillsinfosec.com/]. She has her own podcast which can be found on Twitch [https://www.twitch.tv/womaninredpresents] and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYQ92aMkW1WyP_JjLhuPcw] and recently presented at the Disobey [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sESh2CCVCW0] conference in Finland. On this episode, she talks about how to get into social engineering as a job, some techniques for elicitation, what skills one needs to be a social engineer and the all-important sympathy vs. empathy.

Sho Luv, aka Leon Johnson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonjohnson/] is a ninja, a hacker, a penetration tester and a computer security expert. Leon has performed all types of testing engagements and has mentored many other aspiring pentesters. On this episode, Leon talks about what it takes to be a tester along with some of his own stories of social engineering engagements and his thoughts on being a Black man while doing covert entry engagements. If you want to try your hand at the hacker box Leon created, titled Mr. Robot, have at it: https://sholuv.net/ [https://sholuv.net/]