In Episode 12 of Hack Dissection, Mike Lisi sits down with longtime friend and respected security educator Phillip Wylie — Chief Security Evangelist and Senior Consultant at Suzu Labs, and host of the Simply Offensive and The Phillip Wylie Show podcasts. Together, they look back on their early days pursuing the OSCP, discuss how offensive security has evolved over the last decade, and break down the changing realities of penetration testing in today’s environment.

Phillip shares stories from the field, including a memorable web app penetration test involving SQL injection, weak credential practices, and the all-too-common misuse of risk acceptance. The conversation also explores the growing importance of web app testing, IoT attack paths, continuous remediation, and why foundational skills like networking, operating systems, and scripting still matter for anyone serious about building a career in cybersecurity.

They also dig into mentorship, community involvement, conference speaking, and the future of the industry — from AI as a force multiplier to the value of staying adaptable in a field that never stops changing. Whether you’re an experienced practitioner or just breaking into offensive security, this episode is packed with practical insight, career wisdom, and real-world perspective from one of the community’s most generous voices.

In Episode 11 of Hack Dissection, Mike Lisi and Graham O’Donnell reunite in person after a brutal Q4 to break down what they’re seeing across penetration testing, external assessments, web apps, and internal networks heading into 2026.

The conversation dives into why Q4 is always chaos in cybersecurity, how compliance deadlines shape client behavior, and why traditional external pen tests may be giving way to continuous monitoring and more practical security validation. Mike and Graham also unpack the real-world tradeoffs of scoping engagements, why collaboration with clients leads to better results, and the common misconceptions organizations still have about realism, downtime, and what offensive testing is actually meant to prove.

Along the way, they share stories from the field — including strange external exposures, recurring misconfigurations, creative attack paths, and a wild case where a locked-down browser-based remote desktop environment led to full command-line access. It’s a candid, technical, and funny conversation about where offensive security is headed, what still works, and what organizations should really be testing.

In Episode 0x9 of Hack Dissection, host Mike Lisi flips the perspective from offense to defense with guest Cody Spooner, Principal Sales Engineer at Corelight.

While Mike spends his days breaking into networks, Cody helps organizations defend them. Together they unpack how visibility, monitoring, and mindset intersect in modern cybersecurity — from the SOC Triad (SIEM, EDR, NDR) to the realities of MDR services, threat hunting, and alert fatigue.

They dig into:

• Why companies think they’re protected but still miss every alert
• How to turn red-team findings into real defensive improvements
• What threat hunting actually means (and why it’s not just a buzzword)
• Lessons from ransomware incidents and tabletop exercises
• How small businesses can build effective defenses without enterprise budgets

If you’ve ever wondered what happens after the pen testers pack up, this conversation connects the offensive and defensive sides of the same fight — and shows how better collaboration can close the gap.