The IT Pro Podcast: The secret life of hackers
What it’s really like to be a professional penetration tester

Hacking is one of the glitzier parts of IT, and Hollywood frequently bombards us with images of black-clad hackers hunched malevolently over glowing screens. Sadly, real-world hacking isn’t quite as glamorous as it’s often made out to be - but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fascinating and lively career.
In this week’s episode, we sit down with professional pen-tester and Cyberis director Gemma Moore to find out what the life of a hacker for hire is really like, the common security holes that intruders exploit, and why laziness is a hacker’s greatest weapon.
Elsewhere, we discuss the Twitterpocalypse which saw verified users barred from tweeting, and the landmark decision by the government to remove Huawei from the UK’s 5G networks, as well as what it could mean for UK businesses.
Footnotes
News
- Obama, Biden and Musk Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam
- Twitter hack exposes 250,000 user details (2013)
Huawei
- Why the Huawei ban could be disastrous for UK businesses
- The Man has ruined my Huawei P40
- US officially designates Huawei and ZTE as national security threats
- Can tech survive without China?
- Deutsche Telekom tells Nokia to shape up with Huawei ban looming
- Ericsson increases 5G forecast as data demand surges
- Gigabit broadband and 5G could jumpstart the UK economy, report claims
- Can the UK develop a 5G giant to take on Huawei?
In-depth
- Ethics of red team security testing questioned in new report
- Stories from the front line: The secrets of the Red Team revealed
- What is phishing?
- 10 quick tips to identifying phishing emails
- IT pros air their opinions on phishing employees
- The IT Pro Podcast: How do we fix security?
- HP announces lockdown-friendly security products
- Most UK workers don't want to return to the office
- What hackers don’t want you to know
- Why business resilience matters in times of crisis (and beyond)
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