It鈥檚 a hot July afternoon, and a small team scours another Maryland junkyard. As they walk through the mountains of gnarled metal, they鈥檙e on the lookout for one thing: Car radios. They intend to hack them.
The team is part of DarkLabs, an elite unit of cyber pros at 蘑菇视频 Allen. They have the most advanced tools and techniques, and the mindset of the most talented cyber elite, but instead of trying to break in, they鈥檙e using their skills to help secure 蘑菇视频 Allen鈥檚 clients from cyber adversaries around the world.
Each car radio costs $20 and is added to the growing collection of devices Mike Schroeder and his Embedded Vulnerability Analysis team is researching. They鈥檙e dedicated to finding software flaws and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure鈥攂efore adversaries can exploit them. Back at DarkLabs, Mike and his team disassemble and extract firmware from each device, reverse engineering and testing to identify the vulnerabilities that few can find. Their research helps them develop new tools and capabilities, as well as protect 蘑菇视频 Allen鈥檚 many clients.
Research isn鈥檛 the only thing DarkLabs does. Fred Frey leads the Threat Hunting team, which is comprised of expert developers, analysts, and data scientists. Fred and his colleagues have developed an innovative platform that seamlessly leverages an organization鈥檚 existing Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution to comb through endpoint metadata and identify malicious events across the entire infrastructure.
鈥淲e proactively assess client networks to root out the bad guys,鈥� says Fred. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a search and destroy operation.鈥�
The average time an advanced adversary goes undetected inside a victim鈥檚 network is 200 days. An adversary can do a lot of damage in that time. Fred helps clients catch the bad guys quickly.
The Threat Hunting team works closely with the Cyber Analytics team to automate the identification of malicious events in a network system. They make predictions about how a threat actor or their weapons will act within a network and behaviors that a threat hunter would expect to see in the data. This allows DarkLabs to query all endpoints and correlate their responses at scale.
DarkLabs does some of the most unique work in the cybersecurity industry. Since most are elite-level cyber pros, they move fast between federal government and private sector clients. They quickly engage in a client challenge, set up, plan, and then execute. The fast pace and versatility are what Mike likes most about DarkLabs.
鈥淲e work on everything from cars to industrial control systems鈥攜ou name it,鈥� he says.
DarkLabs doesn鈥檛 just do unique work鈥攖heir culture is different, too. They鈥檙e passionate about their work. They play capture the flag鈥攁 simulated cat-and-mouse game that cyber pros use to sharpen their skills and prove their prowess against others.
When you ask a member of DarkLabs about their first hacks, they quickly rattle off examples of how they hacked systems as teenagers.
Tim Nary, red team lead for DarkLabs, recalls using hacks to give himself more life and ammo in video games, then asked himself, 鈥淚 wonder what else I can hack?鈥�
What types of people thrive at DarkLabs? People with passion, intelligence, and curiosity. People who want to know how things work.
DarkLabs is looking for elite-level cyber pros to .听
鈥淲e鈥檙e really fun,鈥� said Will. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 your grandfather鈥檚 蘑菇视频 Allen.
