Host Dave Johnson sits down with Mike Lisi, President of Red Team Village, and Wes Thurner, Advisor at Red Team Village, to explore offensive security training and community building. Mike and Wes share how Red Team Village creates a collaborative environment where practitioners at all levels can develop skills, share knowledge, and push boundaries—without the gatekeeping that often plagues the industry.

Key topics & timestamps

AI's role in red team operations (0:00 - 1:26)

• Tools help with vulnerability discovery but can't replace human creativity
• The real threat: being replaced by someone who uses AI better than you

What is Red Team Village? (2:26 - 4:16)

• Collaborative space for offensive security professionals to share skills and knowledge
• Covering the full spectrum from beginners to experts
• Hands-on learning through workshops, tactics sessions, and demonstrations

Red team vs. penetration testing (4:19 - 6:20)

• Red teaming focuses on adversary simulation and testing detection/response
• Pen testing is about finding vulnerabilities with defined scope
• Similar technical skills but different objectives and approaches

The tactics format: learning in small chunks (3:20 - 4:16)

• Digestible sessions on topics like buffer overflows or API security
• Less formal than workshops—participants can engage or observe
• Creates round-table discussions with 20-30 people collaborating

Red Team Village beyond DEF CON (26:20 - 27:02)

• Expanding presence at BSides conferences (NYC, Philly)
• Making offensive security training accessible year-round

Reading recommendations (26:43 - 28:01)

• "Redefining Hacking" co-authored by Omar Santos, Savannah Lazar, and Wes Thurner
• Covers quantum computing, AI integration, and modern offensive security approaches

Looking ahead to 2026 (28:01 - 30:00)

• Expanding the tactics format and improving platform support
• Check redteamvillage.io for updates

Key quotes

"The focus here is that we're here to share our skills, share our knowledge with folks that are interested in offensive security. It's not necessarily just the advanced folks that are trying to transition into red team roles, though that is a big part of it. But we really try and cover across the spectrum of offensive security." - Mike Lisi

"What we saw was just this roundtable with somebody that was knowledgeable at a topic, and then 20 or 30 people just all huddled together talking about it was like a very communal sort of thing. It was way less formal than sitting in the audience and just watching one person speak." - Mike Lisi

Helpful links

• Red Team Village 
• (Book) Redefining Hacking by Omar Santos, Savannah Lazar, and Wes Thurner
• DEF CON

Production credits

• Host: Dave Johnson
• Producer: Ben Baker
• Sponsor: Expel Inc.

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