Jonathan Jacobi on CTFs, Vulnerability Research and Building a Security Career
· 1:26:43 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Summary
Jonathan Jacobi discusses how capture-the-flag competitions, vulnerability research and mentorship shaped his cybersecurity career, and how leading a training course broadened his focus to teamwork and building products.
Key points
- Jacobi describes progressing from struggling with CTF challenges to co-founding the Perfect Blue team.
- He credits post-competition discussions and write-ups with helping participants learn alternative solutions to challenges.
- He recalls an early CTF stack buffer overflow exercise that he initially failed to exploit despite knowing the theory.
- Jacobi says he found a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Edge and discussed his path to that research at 35th CCC.
- After security research internships and military service, he led a cybersecurity course, where responsibility for people changed his perspective on technical work.
- He joined the cybersecurity startup Dash IO, where he describes working between customer needs and product strategy.
Article Details
- Topics
- [00:46] From CTF learning to an Edge vulnerability
- [12:01] Game hacking and entry into capture-the-flag competitions
- [16:41] Learning to exploit a CTF stack buffer overflow
- [20:06] Post-CTF discussions and the formation of Perfect Blue
- [27:09] Entering vulnerability research through an internship
- [37:23] Networking and joining a Microsoft research team
- [57:12] Military research and cybersecurity course leadership
- [01:12:21] Moving from technical research toward startup product strategy