Skip to Main Content

Justin Elze

CTO, Director of Research

EXPERIENCE
Justin Elze is currently serving as Chief Technology Officer at TrustedSec. Over his 8 years with the company as an InfoSec expert, Justin has used his vast expertise in enterprise penetration testing, network security, social engineering, and red teaming to identify clients’ vulnerabilities and ultimately, protect their technology infrastructure. Prior to becoming CTO, Justin held the roles of Director of Innovation, Research, and Advanced Testing and Principal Security Consultant for TrustedSec.

With more than a decade of experience in the IT industry, Justin’s expertise is increasingly sought out by others in the field. He has taught at Black Hat and spoken at DerbyCon, where he also served on the CFP Review Board, and is also featured as an industry leader in the published books Tribe of Hackers: Cybersecurity Advice from the Best Hackers in the World and Tribe of Hackers Red Team: Tribal Knowledge from the Best in Offensive Cybersecurity.

Prior to joining TrustedSec, Justin was a Senior Penetration Tester for Accuvant LABS, Optiv, Dell SecureWorks, and Redspin, where he led numerous red team engagements and penetration tests. He has worked across a variety of industries, including roles for ISPs, hosting companies, Department of Defense contracting companies, and consulting companies. Today, he leans on what he learned throughout his roles in various capacities to inform his choices as CTO and further his thought leadership in the industry.

Outside of his work experience and “ethical hacker” persona, Justin is passionate about building, tuning, and racing cars (and, yes, occasionally hacking them) and spending time with his 3 dogs. You can find his latest musings—security-related and otherwise—on his Twitter account, @HackingLZ.

Featured Blogs And Resources

Discover the blogs, analysis, webinars, and podcasts by this team member.

Blog May 18 2023

Walking the Tightrope: Maximizing Information Gathering while Avoiding Detection for Red Teams

Understanding network reconnaissance without detection is crucial in commercial testing, leveraging tools like BloodHound and scripts to gather valuable…

Read about this article
Blog March 17 2023

Critical Outlook Vulnerability: In-Depth Technical Analysis and Recommendations (CVE-2023-23397)

Protect your organization from the Microsoft Outlook CVE-2023-23397 vulnerability with expert guidance and a simple remediation script.

Read about this article
Webinars March 15 2023

Ask Me Anything: Penetration Testing Innovations and Insights

Join David Kennedy & Justin Elze for a live Q&A on penetration testing, tackling the ever-changing tactics used by attackers, and get answers to your burning…

Read about this article
Webinars December 14 2021

Log4j: Live Update Webcast

Learn how to detect and respond to the Log4j vulnerability with experts from TrustedSec & Binary Defense, including David Kennedy, during our live webcast.

Read about this article
Blog May 22 2025

AppSec Cheat Sheet: Session Management

Session Management Testing - CookiesThe Cheat Sheet section is for quick reference and to make sure steps don’t get missed.The Learn section is for those who…

Read about this article
Blog May 20 2025

Red Team Gold: Extracting Credentials from MDT Shares

When it comes to targeting enterprise deployment infrastructure during a Red Team engagement, SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) tends to get all the…

Read about this article
Blog May 15 2025

Purpling Your Ops

How does one Purple Team? TAC Practice Lead Megan Nilsen shares open-source tools, techniques, and tips for security practitioners exploring Purple Teaming,…

Read about this article
Blog May 08 2025

I Got 99 Problems But a Log Ain’t One

1.1 IntroductionHere at TrustedSec, one of the goals of the Tactical Awareness & Countermeasures (TAC) team is to assess and enhance our partners' security…

Read about this article
Blog May 06 2025

Application Layer Encryption with Web Crypto API

OverviewIn web and mobile applications, we’ve been fortunate over the years to have such widespread use of HTTPS by way of TLS. The proliferation of HTTPS is…

Read about this article
Blog May 01 2025

Why the WAF

In my experience, most organizations are prepared to discuss the scope of penetration tests when preparing for an External or Internal Penetration Test, but…

Read about this article

Empower your business through better security design.

Talk directly with our experienced advisory consultants to learn how we can help.