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Hacker Origin Stories: Alexei Doudkine

Posted on 2023-02-23 by Alexei Doudkine in Feature

Welcome to the first episode of Hacker Origin Stories. We have started this series to create a space where professionals can share their own personal experiences about their journey into hacking and cybersecurity. The aim is to showcase the many different paths into the industry and inspire the next generation of hackers to carry the torch.

This origin story has been written by Volkis co-founder, Alexei Doudkine.

Let’s get into it.

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The three questions boards should ask to manage cyber risk

Posted on 2022-11-25 by Matt Strahan in Business Security

If you were a company director and you could ask three questions to judge the cyber security of the organisation, what would they be?

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From SysAdmin to Pentester - Part 5 - OSCP vs PNPT

Posted on 2022-10-31 by Nathan Jarvie in Industry

Part 5 of the Sysadmin-to-Pentester series is a comparison between two entry level penetration testing certifications. Offensive Security’s Certified Professional (OSCP) and TCM Security’s Practical Network Penetration Tester (PNPT). While both have their merits, they focus on different elements and provide different experiences. Deciding which to go for can be a challenge.

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From SysAdmin to Pentester - Part 4 - Tickets please

Posted on 2022-10-24 by Nathan Jarvie in Industry

Part 4 of the Sysadmin-to-Pentester series is discusses offensive security foundation-level certifications. While not required to get a job in the infosec industry, there is no denying that certifications help your chances of landing your first role. Luckily for you, I have done quite a few so far, and can tell you which are worth your time (and which are not).

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From SysAdmin to Pentester - Part 3 - How to stand out in a crowd of paper

Posted on 2022-10-17 by Nathan Jarvie in Industry

Part 3 of the Sysadmin-to-Pentester series is all about how to make your CV stand out from the crowd. Junior roles are rare with many many applications. Additionally, hacking skills don’t translate well to text. So how do we show we have more skill and drive to be a penetration tester than the other candidates, on paper? Well…

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From SysAdmin to Pentester - Part 2 - Great expectations

Posted on 2022-10-10 by Nathan Jarvie in Industry

Part 2 of the Sysadmin-to-Pentester series is discusses the differences between the idea and the reality of being a penetration tester. The certifications and the industry paint a picture a little different from the reality. A better understanding and more preparation towards the roles requirements will help you to decide if this is the role for you and how to ace the interviews.

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From SysAdmin to Pentester - Part 1 - The hard way

Posted on 2022-10-05 by Nathan Jarvie in Industry

This is the first part of a 5 part series in which I will walk through the decision making process and the steps involved in transitioning from a system administrator to a penetration tester. The certifications taken and the the issues and obstacles that I faced along the way.

This is my story, and I hope it helps to inspire people who are considering a mid-life career change that it is possible to do so and to take the leap.

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Active Directory Hacking Speedrun

Posted on 2022-09-23 by Alexei Doudkine in Tools of the Trade

On Saturday 24th of September, I gave a presentation at CSECcon titled, “Active Directory Hacking Speedrun! 14 attacks in 30 minutes.” This post is here to provide some post-talk resources to those wanting to learn about any of these attacks, how they work and recreate them.

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5 methods for Bypassing XSS Detection in WAFs

Posted on 2022-08-09 by Karel Knibbe in Tools of the Trade

Ever since the 1990s, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities have plagued the world wide web. It’s been a difficult problem to solve because of the many ways that it can introduce itself in applications. This, and other application level attacks, contributed to the rise of Web Application Firewalls (WAFs). However, like any other solution that does not tackle the problem by its roots, it’s not ideal. Pentesters, red teamers, bug hunters and malicious actors alike have been playing cat and mouse with vendors to find ways around these additional defence mechanisms. In this post, we’ll be discussing a few fundamental techniques that you can use to bypass these firewalls.

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We were vulnerable - how a security company could have vulns

Posted on 2022-06-22 by Alexei Doudkine in Volkis News

Well, it finally happened! We received the first submission to our Vulnerability Disclosure Program with actual possible impact. And, although it didn’t actually affect us or our clients in any way, it could have. So we awarded it a P3! But how could this happen? We’re security experts ourselves, so shouldn’t we have picked up on it? Well, as we always tell our clients, “security is hard” and no one is perfect.

In the interest of transparency (one of our core values), let’s dig deeper to see how this tale unfolded so that others may learn.

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