Real-World Business Advice from a Friendly Hacker

If your idea of a hacker is based on the representation in pop culture, you're likely to assume all hackers are malicious, anti-social, hoodie-wearing deviants who sit in dark rooms and consume energy drinks by the boatload. But Keren Elazari, an author, researcher and self-described friendly hacker, says that there's been a major shift in what hackers actually do. Many work alongside companies to identify bugs or vulnerabilities, while others are brought on as staff to perform continuous penetration testing or help with security awareness training and more. 

We spoke with Keren at the CDW Protect SummIT in Phoenix after her conference keynote, to get a better understanding of the advice she gives to businesses, on both the line-of-business and IT sides, on how hackers can help, not necessarily hurt, their operations.