Bester Pentester Deutschlands: Vom Capture the Flag zum echten Pentesting-Auftrag | Cass Rebbelin

Cass Rebbelin was awarded Germany's best penetration tester at the NIS-2 Congress talent competition shortly after starting his career at HiSolutions. His driving force was primarily curiosity and the question of how systems work and where their vulnerabilities lie. This has been a constant throughout his career, from learning Excel macros in elementary school to participating in Capture the Flag competitions, which led him to cybersecurity. In conversation with Lena Morgenroth, he discusses the appeal of this bug hunting and the moment when the game becomes serious. In such competitions, participants know that a vulnerability exists and are rewarded with points for finding it. In a real penetration testing project, this isn't known, and the work only begins once the vulnerability is discovered: recommendations, prioritization, time management, and above all, communication with the client—something no certificate can prepare you for. What continues to motivate Cass is precisely the impulse that once gripped him: someone, out of sheer enthusiasm, showed him how things work. He continues this knowledge transfer today through hackathons, internal knowledge sharing sessions, and a student interest group he co-founded. #pentesting #cybersecurity #capturetheflag #digitalization #ethicalhacking 00:00 Best Penetration Tester in Germany 01:19 Intro & Introduction 02:30 What was your professional training path in penetration testing? 07:04 What surprised you when you started your career? 10:25 How does knowledge transfer work in the field of cybersecurity? 12:18 Closing Remarks Show Notes: HiSolutions HackHERthon: https://www.hisolutions.com/hackherthon Overview of pretty much all CTFs: https://ctftime.org/ Beginner CTF: https://picoctf.org/ Two (great) platforms for practical learning (but there are so many others): https://tryhackme.com/ & https://www.hackthebox.com/ Cass's blog with CTF write-ups: https://ccat.gitbook.io/ Award for Germany's best penetration tester: https://nis-2-congress.com/talentwett... HiSolutions is a leading management and technology consulting firm for security and digitalization. For over 30 years, we have combined highly specialized expertise with conceptual strength, innovative power, and implementation competence. 📲 Stay connected with us on other social media platforms: LinkedIn:   / hisolutions-ag   Mastodon: https://infosec.exchange/@hisolutions Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FwPurx... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 📧 Subscribe to our newsletters on exciting topics related to IT security, IT management, and digitalization: https://www.hisolutions.com/newsletter Want to join our team? Here are our current job openings: https://karriere.hisolutions.com/