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Chris Carlis is an unrepentant penetration tester with an extensive background in network, wireless and physical testing. Across his career, Chris has worked to expand the value offensive testing provided via open communication and goal driven engagements. Additionally, Chris has presented at a variety of conferences, including Thotcon, Hushcon, Hackfest, ShowMeCon, DeepSec, CypherCon and various B-Side events. He is a perennial feature at the Thotcon conference in his native Chicago, USA and helps to organize “BurbSec”, the best attended Information Security monthly gatherings in the country. 

I got into cybersecurity the messy, curious way - hacking games as a teenager to get extra coins and superpowers, then later reverse-engineering ransomwares to understand how they worked. That same curiosity and passion led me to a career in offensive cyber security.In the past 5+ years of work experience across India, UAE & USA, I’ve worked on:• Mobile application penetration testing (Android & iOS)• Web application and API penetration testing• Secure code review across C/C++, Python, Java, Golang, JavaScript, Typescript and C# .NET• Custom Signature Code Analysis (Semgrep, YARA & Coverity CodeXM custom checkers)• Adverserial tradecraft and Cyber threat intelligence• Network and infrastructure assessments with Segmentation penetration tests for cloud and on-prem setups• Software Composition Analysis (Coverity, Black Duck, GitHub Advisories, PlexTrac)• Innovative research & automated pentest tools development (AI, OSINT, Python, Bash script)Currently, I work as a Security Researcher at OnDefend, where I help secure user data of a large-scale social media platform & contribute to U.S. national security.🌟 Key Achievements:• Awarded the first-ever “Magical Mention” as an intern at Equinix for uncovering and reporting multiple critical security misconfigurations. Recognized for investigative persistence, curiosity, and successfully improving internal security workflows through proactive analysis and alerting.• Bug Bounty & Hall of Fame mentions: Tesco, IKEA, SecureLayer7 live hacking event, Accenture, Ericsson, Springer Nature, OSIsoft🔍CVE Research:• CVE-2020-11539 : Access control issue in Tata Sonata Smartwatch• CVE-2020-11540 : Access control issue in Tata Sonata Smartwatch• CVE-2020-25498 : Chained CSRF & Stored XSS vulnerabilities in Beetel router• CVE-2020-35262 : Stored XSS vulnerability in Digisol router👾 Outside of work, I’m always exploring new tools, ways to use AI as leverage in security, hacking techniques & trying to level up. I love building my own custom IoT devices as well as hacking them.🧑‍🤝‍🧑As an active member of 'Women in Cybersecurity', 'Women in Security & Privacy' and 'The Diana Initiative' volunteer at Defcon, I’m also passionate about making cyber security more inclusive and human, especially for women and underrepresented voices.